A bylaw adopted by Hamburg’s center-left parliament to allow temporary seizures of vacant buildings to overcome refugee accommodation shortages was slammed on Friday by the city’s opposition free-market liberal FDP leader Katja Suding.
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The massive influx of migrants has put pressure on city authorities to find accommodation. A few are sleeping rough outdoors leading to local tensions and inter-ethnic rivalries.
Hamburg’s law takes effect next week.
Police said several people were wounded, and several arrested, without providing figures.
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The bylaw will only affect commercial properties and not residential ones.
To the west of Hamburg, the city of Bremen is considering a similar measure.
Germany, as Europe’s top destination for people fleeing war and poverty, took in more than 210,000 migrants last month, more than in all of 2014. But the thousands arriving also include asylum seekers from Kosovo, Albania and other Balkan countries, whose claims are usually rejected.
Refugees living in German migrant camps are now dividing into power groups based on religion and ethnicity, leading to clashes and mass brawls.
In Suhl, there was a fight when a Syrian refugee began ripping pages of the Koran.
The asylum centre, had only been opened for a week but it had already seen a hunger strike, with dozens of refugees protesting against what they said were poor conditions. Owners of the empty commercial property must be adequately compensated and Germany’s global broadcaster, Deutsche Welle reported that “appropriations can only occur when space at main refugee reception centres is close to running out”.
The two groups attacked each other with iron bars and furniture and by hurling rocks, reported the daily and DPA news agency, citing emergency personnel in the northern river port city. Instead they will be refurbished to provide 4,000 flats for migrants, the daily Die Zeit reports.
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In the Brandenburg region, in eastern Germany, the authorities have halted the demolition of old social housing blocks.
