German Local governments unhappy with results of refugee financing talks

Refuge

German Local governments were disappointed with a decision to delay finding a permanent solution to refugee financing until later this year, the Rheinische Post reported on Thursday.

In an agreement reached earlier on Wednesday evening, the federal government promised 1 billion Euros (1.1 billion dollars) as an additional contribution to the costs of refugee care for 2023.

However, a decision on permanent funding will not be made to November.

Chief executive of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, Gerd Landsberg, told the Rheinische Post the delay was too late.

“An agreement in November is clearly too late for the year 2024 and is met with great disappointment by the municipalities.

The extra billion was “only a drop in the ocean,’’ Landsberg said.

“This is a bad signal to the cities,“ Markus Lewe, president of the Association of Cities, said.

Meanwhile, municipal representatives were not invited to the meeting.

The funding is to support the states in providing additional relief to their municipalities and in financing the digitalisation of the immigration authorities.

The federal government had already pledged 1.5 billion Euros for war refugees from Ukraine this year and €1.25 billion Euros for other refugees.

In the first four months of 2023, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees received 101,981 asylum applications; this is an increase of about 78 per cent compared to the same period in 2022.

The main countries of origin of the applicants since the beginning of 2023 has been Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey.

(dpa/NAN)