Discussion about asylum

Payment card in Bavaria: “Taking experience on board”

Joachim Herrmann, Bavarian Minister of the Interior, at a meeting with his Austrian counterpart Gerhard Karner(Bild: APA/TOBIAS STEINMAURER)

After Bavaria plans to introduce the payment card for asylum seekers in four municipalities in February, the pilot project is to be extended to the entire German state by the middle of the year. The main aim is to prevent the flow of money to the refugees' home countries to finance smuggling.

This was stated by Joachim Herrmann, the Bavarian Minister of the Interior, after a meeting with his counterpart Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) in Vienna. Karner defended the "benefits in kind card", as he called it, as a means of preventing "abuse". It was necessary to "create fewer incentives and keep the system fair for those who actually need it".

The plans in Bavaria are already very advanced, said Karner. Austria wants to take these experiences on board.

Debate also in Austria
The discussion about the introduction of a payment card also recently flared up in Austria. Support for the Interior Minister's plans comes from Lower and Upper Austria as well as Tyrol. The red states and the SPÖ are generally opposed, and the Greens are also less than enthusiastic about the project.

Joachim Herrmann, the Bavarian Minister of the Interior, at a meeting with his Austrian counterpart Gerhard Karner(Bild: APA/TOBIAS STEINMAURER)

Herrmann emphasized that remittances from asylum seekers to their home countries "currently contribute significantly to the financing of organized crime, and this should be stopped". There will still be enough left over for "real life".

The Bavarian Minister of State considered criticism from human rights organizations, which identified "harassment" for refugees, to be "completely out of place". The payment card is exclusively about the question of how services are provided.

Karner expects border controls to be extended
Karner assumes, however, that the border controls introduced due to security concerns caused by high migration figures will be extended. As long as the EU's external borders are not functioning, the stationary border controls cannot be lifted. Even Germany cannot currently do without controls for "security reasons".