Creating ‘safe areas’ in the region where they’re from would have helped more people at a lower cost and with no societal dislocation, but that’s now how statists think.
Germany ‘spent more than €20bn on refugees in 2016’ as crisis outstrips state budgets
Government document seen by The Independent shows Berlin spent almost double budget
German states spent more than €20bn (£17.5bn) on refugees in 2016, government figures have indicated as Angela Merkel continues to come under pressure for her policy on migration.
Statistics seen by The Independent for the states of Bavaria, Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse and Berlin show that the cost of housing and integrating asylum seekers has far outstripped official predictions.
The Bundestag’s statistics service has listed a total spend of over €7bn (£6bn) for those four states alone in 2016, meaning the nationwide figure is likely to be far higher.