migration
Woidke calls for the Greens to approve the payment card
The payment card is intended to prevent migrants from transferring money to smugglers or to their family or friends abroad. Dietmar Woidke (SPD) also spoke out in favor of such a map with the same argument. photo
© Jens Kalaene/dpa
In the traffic light coalition, views on payment cards for asylum seekers differ. Brandenburg’s head of government sees the Greens as having a duty.
The SPD politician called on the Greens to give in. “I expect the Greens in Berlin to give up their resistance to an amendment to the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act so that the payment card can be introduced across the board and according to the same criteria in a legally secure manner,” Woidke told the “Tagesspiegel” (Wednesday, online edition).
The Greens reiterated their refusal on the issue on Wednesday. “Under the guise of nationwide standardization, Prime Minister Woidke wants to write new discrimination against refugees into law,” said the head of the regional association, Hanna Große Hiltrup, on Wednesday. If there are restrictions on which products asylum seekers are allowed to buy in the supermarket and if people who have lived here for years suddenly need a payment card – then there is a lack of respect for these people. There is no need to stir up sentiment against refugees. A payment card puts people under general suspicion, says Hiltrup.
Reason for new coalition dispute in the federal government
The head of the CDU in the state parliament, Jan Redmann, called on the Greens to have an objective debate after Hiltrup’s statement. “This maneuver, which is obviously only intended to reassure our own clientele, is costing further confidence in our country’s ability to act after the green blockade of the payment card at the federal level this week,” he said, according to a statement on Wednesday. In view of the approval of the Green Economics Minister in the federal government, he could not understand the “supposed potential for outrage”.
The payment card was recently a reason for a new coalition dispute in the federal government. From the perspective of the SPD and FDP, an accompanying federal regulation is necessary. The Greens consider this to be dispensable and point out that the introduction of the payment card has already begun in Hamburg and is imminent in Bavaria.
At the end of January, 14 of 16 federal states agreed on a joint procurement process to introduce a payment card for asylum seekers, which should be completed by the summer. Among other things, the card is intended to prevent migrants from transferring money to smugglers or to their family or friends abroad. Woidke had previously spoken out in favor of such a chip card with the same argument.