Because social workers in the city are threatened more and more often, they may now only work in centres if security forces accompany them.
Social workers were recalled even from individual homes where they were working on child- and youth-support, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported. The recall was neccessary to comply with a rule that has been in place since November 7, the city said.
The city justified the measure in a letter to its employees, stating an increase in “verbal aggression, improper social behavior, and threats”.
Andrea Betz, responsible for refugee aid at the Innere Mission München, criticized the decision as setting a “dangerous example”, blaming the deployment of security personnel for creating “fear” among the migrants, resulting in the danger that social workers now face.
Social experts say they worry that the new approach in the social department could provoke more aggression among the needy. “That’s when the atmosphere changes immediately,” says Betz.
“Social work is for me to approach people and give them the benefit of trust,” she says. With the fundamental use of security, people are put under general suspicion of being violent, Betz argues. “Social work should be where the people are who need help. Safety measures must be assessed on a case-by-case basis.”
The letter to the staff states however that violent behaviour in migrant accommodation has become the norm: “In addition to the mental stress situation, you increasingly experience verbal aggression, unadapted social behavior or threats from customers.” With the growing aggression of frustrated people, who are desperately waiting for housing or money, not only are social workers who provide care in distressed neighbourhoods confronted, but everyone in close proximity to them.
In Munich-Neuperlach a huge stone wall was built a year ago around a refugee centre for “noise protection”.
At the Office for Housing and Migration at the Franziskanerstraße, where a crowd of up to 1 500 people in need of help gather daily, 25 security personnel have been deployed permanently because of the ongoing tense security situation.
The fact that the department has now completely stopped its social services at centres outside their offices, is a new escalation level.
People who need the support of social workers now have to go to the authorities themselves instead. Migrants who decide to visit social workers however, are very rare and only a few ever make use of their help.
In the meantime, 13 000 German households in Munich are waiting for council housing. But only 3000 apartments can be assigned each year.
Christian Müller, social spokesperson of the SPD in the city council, is not happy with the new measure. It is “absolutized that you can not go outside,” says Müller.
The city administration is also considering sending social workers not on their own, but in pairs to the centres, in extreme cases.
In the coming year, a security concept will be implemented step by step, in which security is also deployed for field staff in “sufficient quantities”. Until then, the “organizational measure” is for staff to remain in the office in order to protect employees from attacks.