Payment card is enough for 50 euros
State leaders decide on cash cap for refugees
20.06.2024, 18:08
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Migration and immigration are the main topics of the conference of prime ministers. The state leaders agree on the payment card. The SPD-led states are skeptical about the question of whether asylum procedures can be outsourced. But the task for the traffic light coalition is clear.
The federal states have agreed to limit the cash withdrawal for the planned payment card for asylum seekers to 50 euros per month. It is an important sign that the states are united on this issue, said the chairman of the Conference of Prime Ministers, Hesse’s Prime Minister Boris Rhein of the CDU, in Berlin. Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil welcomed the step. This may conclude the discussion on the topic, said the SPD politician.
The payment card is to be launched in the summer, once the tender for the service provider has been completed. Among other things, it is intended to prevent money payments to smugglers or families in the home countries, relieve municipalities of administrative burdens and reduce the incentive for illegal migration. 14 of 16 federal states are participating in a joint tendering process. Bavaria and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are going their own way.
Faeser is skeptical
At their meeting in Berlin, the heads of state governments also called on the federal government, at the urging of the Union, to develop concrete models for outsourcing asylum procedures to transit and third countries outside the European Union. The SPD side was nevertheless skeptical that such a regulation would be able to reduce irregular immigration to any great extent.
“I don’t believe that this will be a solution to our structural problems,” said Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Weil. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser expressed similar views: This could be a “building block” but will not fundamentally change the migration situation in Germany, said the SPD politician. It is not a “game changer.”
The Union, on the other hand, was satisfied. North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst called on Scholz to see the agreement between the states as a mandate to “approach a third-country solution with care, seriousness and determination.”
Italy as a guide
The Union has long been pushing for a regulation under which migrants either undergo asylum procedures in transit countries on their way to Europe or are sent to third countries outside the EU after arriving in Germany. Italy has agreed such a model with Albania for boat refugees who are picked up in the Mediterranean. Although this cannot be transferred one-to-one to Germany, from the Union’s point of view it could serve as a model to follow. However, a country would have to be found that is willing to cooperate.
In their resolution, the states therefore call on the federal government to “develop concrete models for conducting asylum procedures in transit and third countries and, in particular, to address the necessary changes in EU regulation and national asylum law.” The agreement is “a very important step forward,” said Wüst. The states are thereby showing that they are “facing up to their responsibility in this challenging situation.”
The IMK chairman, Brandenburg’s Interior Minister Michael Stübgen, also views considerations of asylum procedures in third countries with a certain degree of skepticism. “This is a possible project that will be very complicated and will not be easy to classify legally,” said the CDU politician. “But I am happy to be convinced that this should be attempted.”
Deputy FDP parliamentary group leader Konstantin Kuhle told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND): “In order to advance this project, the federal government should start a pilot project as soon as possible in order to gain its own experience.” Kuhle told the German Press Agency that he does not support the British Rwanda model, but is rather in favor of enabling European asylum checks in transit states.