In Germany, regions demand to limit benefits for refugees from Ukraine

German regions demand cuts in aid for new Ukrainian refugees. This is reported by Welt.

They believe that refugees from Ukraine, who have recently arrived in Germany, should no longer receive immediate benefits, but should receive benefits in accordance with the Asylum Seekers' Benefits Act.

In particular, the chairman of the district council Reinhard Sager pointed out that the Council of 294 German districts has been warning the government for months about the overload due to the influx of Ukrainian refugees and said that it should stop paying them cash aid, but switch to in-kind assistance and introduce a requirement for the newcomers to work.

In his turn, Tarek Alaov, the spokesman of the Pro Asyl refugee policy organisation, considers this requirement unrealistic. He pointed out that such an approach would introduce the notion of class and divide refugees into those who came earlier and those who came now, which contradicts the laws of equality.

All Ukrainian refugees receive the same protection status because they are fleeing for the same reasons. There can be no deadline to change this," he said.

He emphasised that the demand of the Council of Regions was nothing but a political move at the expense of refugees.

Meanwhile, migration expert Herbert Brücker suggested that the tensions in society were caused by the government's mistake of parceling out Ukrainians to regions with high unemployment, which increased the discontent of Germans.

This significantly reduced the chances of integration," he said.

According to Eurostat, there were about 1.1 million Ukrainian citizens registered in Germany at the end of June 2023.