Despite the recognizable emergency situation, according to the NST, work was carried out in "normal mode" for an irresponsibly long time.
As early as August of this year, municipal representatives pointed out the looming emergency situation and urgently called for a concrete plan to show how this could be overcome and how the unchecked influx of refugees could be limited in the long term.
It is true that the state government has now significantly increased its own initial reception capacities in a short space of time. However, in the opinion of the NST, this is not enough to cope with the emergency situation. The current request for administrative assistance from Hanover makes this abundantly clear.
The asylum package passed by the Bundestag last Thursday, which was approved by the Bundesrat - unfortunately without the vote of Lower Saxony - is also finally moving in the right direction, but is still a long way from solving the emergency situation.
It goes without saying that the cities and municipalities will comply with the request for administrative assistance from the state of Lower Saxony - insofar and as long as this is still possible. As the NST reminds us, the system of refugee accommodation and care has only worked for a long time thanks to an extraordinary effort by the cities, municipalities and volunteers.
However, space and personnel in the cities and municipalities are finite, and volunteers are reaching their limits. We are now seeing that school sports halls and youth centers, for example, have to be used to house refugees due to the federal government's misguided policies in order to prevent people from becoming homeless.
The federal states of Hamburg and Bremen have even passed laws for the temporary confiscation of vacant commercial properties (Hamburg) and unused buildings of 300 square meters or more (Bremen).
The request for administrative assistance only provides the state of Lower Saxony with short-term breathing space, but threatens to suffocate the cities and municipalities.
In this respect, the Federal Government and the Bundestag are now urgently required to work together with the EU and the USA to tackle the causes of refugees in the long term and to limit the influx of refugees as quickly as possible.
Measures such as "more effective aid in the countries of origin", "EU quota system", "transit zones", "hotspots", "improving the refugee situation in Turkey" and "securing the EU's external borders" are urgently needed - time is running out.
The full NST press release can be viewed below.