Despite referendums, open letters and protests, city leaders in Germany refuse to listen to local residents and are seeking to find loopholes for the admission of as many migrants as possible.

Berlin has recently seen a surge in assaults against LGBTQ people perpetrated by Muslim migrants, the owner of a gay club told the German Bild newspaper.

Carla Pahlau, the owner of the club called „Die Busche”, has written an open letter to Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner, expressing her concern for the safety of her guests, as the city plans to create a refugee shelter to accommodate 650 migrants from Turkiye, Syria and Afghanistan right across the street, directly opposite her club.

According to Bild, she fears that conflicts could arise between the club’s guests and the new arrivals, which would mean that Die Busche would be „threatened with closure”.

Kurt Wansner and Timur Husein, opposition CDU members in the Berlin senate, told Bild that they support the club owner and believe that the city’s choice of location is a disaster, adding that the arrival of hundreds of migrants in a crime-ridden area would only further exacerbate the situation.

However, Oliver Noll, left-wing deputy mayor, says that local residents and the migrants to arrive soon „have to get used to each other”.

Loopholes for migrants at the expense of locals

In the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germans regularly vote against migrants in various referendums, but the state’s leaders consistently ignore the outcome and seek all sorts of loopholes in a bid to host migrants.

Most recently, a referendum was held in Grevensmuhlen, where an overwhelming majority of the residents, 91.4 per cent, voted against a container facility in the town, RMX News reports.

The outcome of the vote means that the town, with a population 10 thousand, must make sure that no container villages are set up on urban land, and no land owned by the town can be rented or sold for this purpose.

Despite the overwhelming majority voting against migrant camps, Grevesmuhlen Mayor Lars Prahler argued that

the vote does not apply to land in private ownership, and only prohibits container housing. He said the town will continue to accommodate migrants in permanent buildings, such as sports halls. He also added that the municipality is looking into the option of putting up tents for migrants, and noted that the referendum is only binding for a period of two years.

Also in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 65 per cent of the residents living in Greifswald voted against a container village there. However, Stefan Fassbinder, Green party mayor, rejected the results saying that migrants will come one way or the other anyhow. He added that despite the vote, the municipality will stick to its pro-migration agenda although it will be harder to decide where to house new arrivals.