German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is scheduled to meet with the heads of the country's states in Berlin on May 10 to discuss refugee issues. Due to the recent influx of migrants to the country, regional governments demand additional funding to accommodate and integrate the people, the report said.
However, the draft document seen by the broadcaster says that the federal government is not ready to allocate more money for these purposes, as Berlin considers the respective spending already very high.
In particular, since June 2022, the German government has been covering the living expenses of Ukrainian refugees, including up to 75% of their warm rent costs. Last year, Berlin spent about 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) on that.
In 2022, the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees recorded over 244,100 asylum applications, which was 50,000 more compared to 2021. Since the beginning of 2023, there have been around 87,777 asylum applications registered so far.