Refugees: State guarantor apparently takes costs of 21.7 million

eIn a year after the decision to take over most of the so-called refugee guarantees, the costs for the federal and state governments have been fixed: Nationwide, the institutions concerned “have reported bad debts totaling EUR 21,698,509”, the Federal Ministry of Labor replied to an AfD request Fraction the “New Osnabrück newspaper” (“NOZ”) is available.

The highest amount, 8.3 million euros, therefore goes to Lower Saxony, followed by North Rhine-Westphalia with 6.78 million euros and Hesse with 2.1 million euros. In Berlin, the reported failures amount to 1.24 million euros.

At the height of the refugee crisis, tens of thousands of private individuals and institutions had made it possible for Syrians to enter Germany with so-called refugee guarantees. They agreed to take over the social benefits. However, because numerous guarantors had been insufficiently informed by the authorities about the period of validity, the federal government had agreed a year ago with the federal states to assume the costs after a case-by-case assessment.

“This is a scandal,” says an AfD MP

“At the urging of the SPD, the taxpayer must now bear the costs for the broken refugee guarantees. That is a scandal, ”AfD MP René Springer criticized the newspaper. At the time, however, the Union, the Greens, the FDP and the Left Party had also supported the decision not to demand the money from the guarantors if they had not been clearly informed that they should have been responsible for costs even after the asylum procedure had ended.

In 2016, the grand coalition then made it clear that the commitments would last for five years.