An agreement to finance asylum seekers between the federal government and the states in Germany

ARK News… After months of wrangling over refugee costs, Germany's federal and state governments have reached an agreement on the future distribution of refugee costs after months of conflict.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on Tuesday, November 7, 2023, that the federal government wants to pay a deductible amount of 7,500 euros ($8,030) to each asylum seeker annually at the end of the marathon conference of state prime ministers in Berlin.

Recently, the German federal states demanded a greater financial contribution to refugee costs from the Berlin government, stressing that it has no influence on the number of migrants that Berlin allows into the country.

According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, 233,744 first-time asylum applications were submitted in Germany this year until September, much more than in the entire previous year.

Germany has received more than a million war refugees from Ukraine who do not have to submit a formal application for asylum.

In mid-May, the federal government already promised the states an additional €1 billion in contribution for the current year, aiming to support them in relieving the burden on their local authorities and financing the digitization of immigration authorities. However, states and local authorities have been pushing for some time for a more flexible system in which payments are based on the actual number of refugees.

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