Source: The Local
A Die Welt report titled “Refugees go on holiday to where they were persecuted” has been raising eyebrows this week as people question how this could happen.
The report was based on cases being reported by Berlin labour agencies that some recognized refugees, who are also registered as unemployed, travelled back to Syria, Afghanistan or Lebanon, and later returned to Germany.
Die Welt did not have a number for how many people had done this in Berlin, but said that sources familiar with the process assumed refugees were doing this across the country.
The Federal Labour Ministry also did not have concrete numbers for how many refugees had gone back and forth, stating only that “there are such cases”.
The newspaper reported that people receiving Hartz-IV welfare benefits are entitled to 21 days of being absent from their registered location without having their benefits reduced. But there is no rule that a recipient disclose the location of where they are going to authorities.
But experts told The Local that this report didn’t provide the full picture.
“Die Welt’s research has very little reliable information,” Karl Kopp from advocacy group Pro Asyl and NGO network the European Council on Refugees and Exiles told The Local.
Categories: Europe, Europe and Australia, European Union, Germany