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Germany to introduce special debit cards for asylum seekers to restrict spendings

Illustrative photo via Peoplestock/McPhoto/ullstein bild/Getty Images.
Illustrative photo via Peoplestock/McPhoto/ullstein bild/Getty Images.
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On Friday, Germany took steps toward introducing special debit cards which impose restrictions on how and where asylum seekers can utilize their financial benefits, as part of a more stringent migration policy.

The three parliamentary groups of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government coalition agreed on a draft law that will be put to a vote in the nation’s lower house, after the Green party came around to support it after months of negotiations.

Germany’s regional states, some of which had already independently launched such shopping cards, had pushed for a nation-wide legal framework.

The card, designed to control benefits to asylum seekers and to prevent money transfers abroad, has long been debated as a tool to reduce cash benefits that the co-ruling liberal Free Democrats (FDP) have criticized as a false incentive for migration into Germany.

Chancellor Scholz and his Social Democrats (SPD) have been seeking to reduce the number of asylum seekers and stem support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Source: Reuters
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