Dresden closes all asylum containers: A decline in the number of refugees!

Dresden closes all asylum containers: A decline in the number of refugees!

Something is happening in Dresden that is making many people take notice: the city is planning to close six transitional homes for asylum seekers at the end of 2025. These container facilities, which were built on city property just two years ago, are now being closed due to the sharp decline in the number of newly arriving asylum seekers. Various locations in the city are affected, including Gorbitz, Strehlen, Löwenhainer Straße, Sachsenplatz and Windmühlenstraße in Niedersedlitz. The contracts for these facilities will not be extended; instead, the containers will be dismantled and used for other purposes, as MDR reports.

In the North Saxony district, an accommodation in Eilenburg will also close. The lease agreement for the residential containers in the Schanzberg commercial area will not be extended, which District Administrator Kai Emanuel regrets. Despite this closure, there are efforts to find new accommodation in Eilenburg. He contradicts the assumption that there will no longer be a need in the future and points to an easing in the current figures.

Declining numbers of asylum seekers

The reasons for the closures are clear: the number of asylum seekers has been declining since 2024. For the current year, the city authorities in Dresden expect only 800 asylum seekers and an additional 100 people from Ukraine. For comparison: In the crisis year of 2023 there were 2,125 refugees and in 2022 there were 1,556, as Tag24 reports.

The plan for the individual locations is as follows: 152 places are to be closed in Niedersedlitz, 144 places in Strehlen and 48 places in Gorbitz. The containers in Seidnitz, Trachau and Johannstadt are also affected, with a total number of 48 to 65 spaces. The containers, which were originally limited to 24 months, have obviously no longer served their full potential.

A look at the data

If you take a closer look, you can see that migration numbers in Germany will decline in the first quarter of 2025. The Federal Police reports around 14,600 unauthorized entries, which is 24% fewer than in the previous year. The numbers on asylum applications are also particularly relevant: While almost 57,000 asylum applications were recorded in 2023, around 25,500 people applied for asylum in the whole of 2024. Mediendienst Integration refers to a similar observation, which points out that irregular entries are difficult to quantify because not everyone is recorded.

The closures of asylum accommodation in Dresden and the district of Northern Saxony reflect a larger trend that is related to the declining number of refugees. It will be exciting to see how the situation develops in the coming months.