German Government Wants to Pay Failed Afghan Asylum Seekers to Leave
23rd August 2024
The German traffic light coalition is considering paying “financial travel support” to asylum seekers set to be deported to Afghanistan, Bild reports. Critics question why the country would reward foreigners with no residency rights to do what they are supposed to do anyway—leave the country.
Providing rejected migrants with ‘start-up money’ for food and housing is intended to encourage them to leave, but also to help avoid legal challenges, Germany’s interior ministry said. Failed asylum seekers have in the past challenged deportation orders on grounds of being returned to abject poverty.
Programs already exist in different German states to assist rejected asylum seekers who return to their home countries voluntarily. Amounts can range from a few hundred to “several thousand euros,” Bild says—amounts that are still small compared to the cost of having the migrants remain in Germany.