Pirmasens – a German town no longer accepting asylum seekers

Pirmasens will no longer be required to accept new asylum seekers and refugees, the German Interior Ministry of the Rhineland-Palatinate state has announced, Deutsche Welle reports. The development came after a meeting of the national government and community leaders, who have long said that their town could not afford the resources required to integrate asylum seeker and refugee communities.

“We are ready to provide short-term help to Pirmasens, as the town is in a special situation,” said state Integration Minister Anne Spiegel.

Mayor Berhard Mathies told French news agency AFP that he welcomed the move, thanking the state government “for giving us a breather.”

Until now, refugees and asylum seekers had been sent to Pirmasens because of the large number of vacant apartments available for housing. However, the town’s troubled economic situation, which was among the reasons for the empty apartments, made providing refugees the services they need difficult.

The town of 40,000 has taken in around 1,300 asylum seekers, most of whom have had their applications accepted. Mayor Mathies said he began to notice “alarm signals” in the past year that the city’s volunteers and teachers needed help to deal with the number of migrants in town.

Minister Spiegel said that Pirmasens as a German town was a “special case,” but several towns across Germany have successfully appealed to stop having to accept additional asylum seekers and refugees.

Last month, the city of Cottbus announced that it would no longer be accepting new asylum seekers and refugees. Similarly, the towns of Salzgitter, Delmenhorst and Wilhelmshaven last year invoked a ban, citing a lack of resources to handle the number of migrants arriving.

Opposition politicians in the Rhineland-Palatinate state legislature are demanding that a state-wide survey be conducted to make sure other towns are not suffering in the same way as Pirmasens.