2 days ago
German state to offer loans to asylum seekers
Asylum seekers in an east German state could be given interest-free loans instead of benefits in an attempt to cut down on migration costs.
State officials in Thuringia have proposed a new model under which adult asylum seekers would pay back the loans after finding a job.
'Those who have come here and do not pay into the system should only receive social benefits as zero-interest loans,' Matthias Jendricke, a district administrator and centre-Left Social Democrats (SDP) politician, told the German news outlet Stern.
Mr Jendricke said the policy would be similar to the student loans system, with asylum seekers given discounts on their debt if they paid it back in a timely fashion.
The debt would also be reduced by 50 per cent for asylum seekers who found employment and took language courses within a year of arrival in Germany.
In addition to asylum seekers, non-EU migrant workers, including UK citizens, would also be eligible for the loans, he said.
The proposal comes as Germany significantly hardens its stance on mass migration after Friedrich Merz, the Chancellor, warned that its capacity for asylum seekers was overwhelmed.
Mr Merz, the centre-Right Christian Democrats leader, has already instructed border guards to turn away asylum seekers trying to enter the country via land crossings.
This week, it emerged the policy has so far cost the German taxpayer 80 million euros (£68m), with overstretched police forces racking up huge amounts of overtime and staying in hotels near border checkpoints.
New government statistics also revealed that Berlin was struggling to achieve its goal of persuading Syrian refugees to return home in the wake of the collapse of the Assad regime.
The German interior ministry has disclosed that only around 1,300 of Germany's one million Syrian refugees have gone back to the Middle Eastern state, despite the government offering them cash incentives to do so.
'More than four million asylum seekers and war refugees came to Germany in the last decade – our capacities to integrate so many people into our society are exhausted, our public order and internal security severely affected,' Günter Krings, a senior Christian Democrats MP, said in a recent interview with the Telegraph.
Mr Merz's coalition, which includes the SPD, is under immense pressure to reassure Germans over border security.
In last February's federal elections, the anti-migrant, far-Right Alternative for Germany came second, making it the de facto opposition. The result was unprecedented in German post-war history.
