Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Germany’s 16 state governors have agreed on new and tougher measures to stem the high number of illegal migrants flowing into the country, reaching a compromise on an issue that has become a major political issue for the government.
GERMANY, NOV 07 (Telegraph News) — The new measures include speeding up asylum procedures, limits on benefits for asylum seekers, and more financial assistance from the federal government to states and local communities dealing with the influx.
Speaking early Tuesday after an overnight meeting that lasted several hours, Scholz, a Social Democrat who leads a center-left government, called the deal “a historic moment,” a remark that showed how burdensome the issue had become for the government.
The number of new asylum applications for the year so far was about 73 percent higher at the end of September than in the same period last year, official statistics show.
Shelters for migrants and refugees have been overflowing in Germany for months and Scholz, who faces intense pressure from the opposition and elsewhere to halt the trend, has said: “Too many are coming”.
Germany has also taken in more than 1 million Ukrainians since the start of Russia’s war on their homeland, Euronews reports.
In recent weeks, there has been a flurry of government activity, including legislation to ease deportations of unsuccessful asylum seekers, toughen punishment for smugglers, allow asylum seekers to start work more quickly, and introduce temporary checks on Poles, Czechs. and the borders of Switzerland.
The federal and state governments agreed on Tuesday to change the system for funding the costs of asylum seekers.
Starting next year, the federal government will pay an annual amount of 7,500 euros for each asylum seeker and no longer a total annual amount of around 3.7 billion euros.
Asylum seekers must also receive at least part of their benefits as a credit on a payment card, meaning they will receive less money in the future.