Long-term contracts

Disused asylum centers swallow up millions

The asylum center in Traun was only opened at the end of October 2023 and closed again at the beginning of December.

(Bild: © Harald Dostal / 2023)

Temporarily unused asylum accommodation has caused considerable costs due to long-term contracts. As a response from the Ministry of the Interior to NEOS member Stephanie Krisper shows, a good 2.5 million has had to be spent since the end of 2020. A total of around 13.5 million has been spent on abandoned accommodation since the refugee crisis in 2015. The facility in Schiefling am See in Carinthia alone cost around 386,000 euros.

An incredible amount of money continues to be thrown out of the window due to the mismanagement of basic care, Krisper is annoyed. The Court of Audit had clearly stated what the government had to do - namely to develop a comprehensive concept for an effective and economical approach to the accommodation and care of asylum seekers together with the federal provinces.

An incredible amount of money continues to be thrown out of the window due to the mismanagement of basic care.

NEOS-Mandatarin Stephanie Krisper

High rental costs
It is above all the rental costs that have hit the books. Over the past three years, they have amounted to around 2.3 million, plus another 245,000 euros in operating costs. In addition to the care facility in Schiefling, the one at Wörthersee was particularly expensive at around 345,000 euros and the one in Korneuburg at almost 334,000 euros.

The asylum center in Traun was only opened at the end of October 2023 and closed again at the beginning of December.

(Bild: © Harald Dostal / 2023)

It should be noted that the facilities were not closed all the time and that the contracts for some of them had already been terminated. At the beginning of December, only the facilities in Leoben and Frankenburg, which also generated unused costs, were closed.

(Bild: Birbaumer Christof)

As a result, the costs incurred were no longer too high. In the previous year, it was around 143,000 euros. Incidentally, in 2022, the last year of a strong refugee movement to date, hardly any of the facilities were shut down, de facto only the one in Schiefling, which is why this Carinthian care center also incurred the highest costs over the period.

Criticism from the Court of Audit
In a report published at the beginning of 2022, the Court of Audit criticized the fact that the Ministry of the Interior had concluded contracts for asylum accommodation for too long. The Ministry of the Interior referred to the large movement of refugees in 2015, stating that the top priority was to create additional accommodation in the area of federal care as soon as possible in order to cope with the ongoing migration flows and avoid homelessness.

Individual rental agreements concluded for 15 years
However, the Court of Audit noted that individual rental agreements were tied for up to 15 years. Long notice periods further restricted the ability to react flexibly to changing conditions. According to the report, the federal government had incurred costs of over eleven million for closed care facilities by the end of 2020. To this must now be added the 2.5 million since then, as the response to the inquiry shows.