The 700

Some Germans think that the refugee shelters are intended as some holding pin or enclosed compound where the incoming refugees to Germany are held until they are approved or disapproved for visa-status.  Well, no.  The shelters are simply shelters....not 'jail-like' structures.

This comes up as a topic because in recent days in Lower Saxony.....the local authorities have had to admit in public that roughly 700 'participants' (refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants, etc)....who were brought into the compound area....are no longer there, and they didn't exactly check out.  They just walked out.

What the immigration folks in Lower Saxony say.....at least for the news media....is that a number of these refugees had relatives in the region or in Germany.....and the relatives came by to pick them up.  But since they didn't exactly out-process or do any paperwork at the center.....no one knows much of anything.

In this case....the 700 folks will eventually show up in some auslander office (not necessarily in Lower Saxony) and want administrative action.....and the files will be updated.  Course, this will start to generate more attention to this episode and more Germans asking stupid questions.

Right now, the political folks and general public of Germany think there's some method of wisdom at work and balancing out the refugees into a statistical division among the sixteen states.  If they were to wake up and suddenly feel that the refugees are now moving around the country and getting to different states and creating an imbalance for one or two particular states....well, it'd really turn up the heat on public perception.

As for the 700 folks?  Frankly, put yourself into their shoes.  You've spent a couple of weeks walking up to Germany.....they've pushed you into some marginal one-star facility with safety as something of concern, and the Germans hint you might be there for six to eight months.  What idiot would want to remain there?  So, they call up relatives who are already established in Germany....have an apartment or house, and they move in with people they trust.  They will wait a week or two and then ask the local auslander office for an update.

The Germans have no law to prevent this, and it's hard to see why you'd want to prevent it.  The less in the camps....the better.  But then, you'd always wonder.....where exactly are the 700 folks?