Fireworks banned near refugee shelters in Germany for New Year’s Eve

Several refugee shelters in Germany have banned fireworks for celebrations on New Year’s Eve, both for safety concerns and to protect asylum seekers from reliving the trauma of war, AFP reports.

The night sky is expected to be silent in at least four German states, rather than illuminated with firecrackers and rocket bursts, as would be typical on New Year’s Eve.

“People from war zones tend to associate the bangs with shots and bombs rather than with New Year’s fireworks,” Christoph Soebbeler, an official in Arnsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia state, said to national news agency DPA. “That could reignite people’s traumas.”

Elsewhere, in Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, states housing many of the refugees who arrived in Germany this year, shelters have also prohibited or discouraged fireworks.

Where fireworks have not been banned, police in the city of Mannheim have distributed information in Arabic to prepare asylum-seekers for noisy New Year’s Eve celebrations in Germany.