Bavaria wants to introduce a payment card for asylum seekers as a pilot in a few weeks. The aim is to stop “uncontrolled immigration”.
“Our payment card comes faster and is more difficult” than in other German states, Prime Minister Markus Söder wrote on Sunday in the short message service X. According to “Bild”, the pilot project should initially be tested in four communities.
Cash is only available there “as small pocket money up to 50 euros,” Söder explains. This means that only goods for daily use can be purchased in stores. Online shopping, participation in gambling and transfers abroad would be stopped.
“Limiting uncontrolled immigration”
In addition, the card may only be used in the vicinity of the accommodation. “We need an effective restriction of uncontrolled immigration as soon as possible,” Söder wrote. “This requires a reduction in incentives to come to Germany.”
“There is no more time to lose,” the CSU boss wrote. That is why Bavaria is switching from cash to in-kind benefits in the four municipalities “significantly earlier” than other German states. “Although the card is only advertised elsewhere, we will test it in practice in a month.”
This means “no to transferring money abroad”. It “helps no one if asylum seekers send money home from Germany”.
This also means “declaring war on smuggling gangs and unfortunate deaths in the Mediterranean.” Söder formulated the goal of significantly reducing the number of asylum seekers using payment cards.
A few days ago, the German states agreed on standards for the introduction of a payment card for refugees. With the card, refugees should receive part of the benefits they are entitled to in the form of credit instead of in cash according to uniform standards. 14 of the 16 German states are aiming for a joint procurement procedure.
In Austria, the ÖVP recently started a discussion about a payment card system based on the German model.
Source: Krone
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