After Bavaria plans to introduce the payment card for asylum seekers in four municipalities in February, the pilot project should be expanded to the entire state by the middle of this year. The main goal is to prevent the flow of money to the refugees’ home countries to finance smuggling crime. However, Karner expects that border controls will be expanded
Joachim Herrmann, the Bavarian Minister of the Interior, said this after a meeting with his colleague Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) in Vienna. Karner defended the “benefits in kind” card, as he called it, as a means to prevent “abuse.” You need to “create fewer incentives and keep the system fair for those who really need it.”
The plans in Bavaria are already well advanced, says Karner. In any case, Austria wants to take these experiences with it.
Debate also in Austria
Discussions recently broke out in Austria about the introduction of a payment card. Support for the Interior Minister’s plans comes from Lower and Upper Austria and Tyrol. The Red States and the SPÖ in general are negative, and the Greens are also not very enthusiastic about the project.
Currently, transfers of asylum seekers to their home countries “contribute significantly to the financing of organized crime, which must be prevented,” Hermann emphasizes. There is still enough left for ‘real life’.
The Bavarian State Minister found the criticism from human rights organizations that identified “intimidation” of refugees “completely misplaced, because the payment card only serves to answer the question of how services are provided.”
Karner expects border controls to be expanded
Karner assumes that border controls, introduced due to security concerns due to high migration numbers, will be expanded. As long as the EU’s external borders do not function, stationary border controls cannot be lifted. Germany cannot currently do without controls for “security reasons”.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
