The hall sports hall was converted into a mass camp in two days. From now on, up to 200 refugees from the Ukraine can be accommodated there at short notice.
The hall sports hall is set up for the short-term accommodation of refugees from the Ukraine.
Handball players, floorball players and volleyball players usually train in the hall sports hall in Alt-Wiedikon – the Zurich fencing club is also housed here. Now the hall, whose grandstand can hold 2,500 spectators, will be used as refugee accommodation for an indefinite period. The city of Zurich expects the number of people displaced from Ukraine to increase.
During this time, the hall is operated by the city of Zurich’s civil defense and the Zurich Asylum Organization (AOZ). Places for 200 refugees have been available there since late Tuesday afternoon. Just last week, the hall sports hall was selected as emergency accommodation.
Spend the night between partitions
On Monday, the civil defense began with the construction, the following day at 1 p.m. the erection of the partition walls is still in progress. About 50 civil protection officers are on duty, sockets are being installed, and the curtains for the entrances to the ad hoc rooms will follow. Six loungers are set up in each “room”. The improvised rooms are intended for two mothers or pairs of parents with their children. Men traveling alone should be accommodated separately. Pets are also welcome.
According to director Stefan Roschi, three to four people from the AOZ are present around the clock. Interpreters will help out. One of the most important things is the WiFi so that people can continue to work online and stay in touch with families and friends.
The partition walls were provided by the company that built the wooden houses for exhibition hall 9 in Oerlikon in 2015. The hall was then used as accommodation for asylum seekers. The company stepped in because the originally planned Ikea huts had not met the fire safety regulations. The acceptance of the facility in the hall sports hall by the fire police is currently in progress, says Peter Wullschleger, commander of the fire brigade and civil protection.
First and foremost, it was about being able to offer sleeping places quickly, according to Wullschleger, because the staff house in the Triemli hospital is already full. According to their director Roschi, the other locations of the AOZ are said to be working at up to 90 percent capacity. The capacities of the hotels are also exhausted. According to the social department, 500 to 600 people are currently housed there.
A play corner for children has also been set up in the indoor sports hall, with a second to follow.
There are six loungers per room for two mothers with their children.
The places are intended for short-term accommodation of Ukraine refugees who have to bridge the time until they can submit their application for protection status S in the Federal Asylum Center in Zurich. Or for those who want to travel further. According to Roschi, the refugees should be accommodated in the hall sports hall for one to three nights.
The hall sports hall is primarily intended as a place to sleep. Here you should be able to rest, shower and eat something, explains Roschi. It is an “overflow basin for travelers”. People who just need a bed will be referred to this accommodation by Zurich main station, for example by the canton police or the SIP Züri (Sicherheit Intervention Prevention). Roschi points out that the last trains from Vienna arrive after midnight and that there are therefore hardly any alternatives.
It is unclear how many displaced persons will spend the night here every day. The social department is assuming there will be a coming and going. According to this, the accommodation should “be used more or less intensively according to the current volume”. The hall sports hall should primarily serve as a relief structure for other facilities.