A freedom of information (FoI) request made by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the eastern state of Saxony has thrown light on the enormous amount of money being spent on migrants beyond the billions already set aside for accommodation and food.
The 27-page list of expenses paid out to charities and companies providing services for migrants in Saxony covered just one year from 2015 to 2016, but ran to nearly €30 million. The German government already plans to spend over €93 billion on migrants by the end of 2020, according to reports.
In the FoI document, hundreds of awards are listed with amounts paid out to migrant assistant groups from a few tens of thousands to over a million euros.
The vague descriptions of the multicultural projects funding by German taxpayers include dozens of rooms outfitted as so-called “focal points” or meeting rooms for the use of migrants. The cost of outfitting these rooms ranged between €50,000 and €100,000 each.
Also paid for among the hundreds of entries in the document are integration programmes including dance classes for children (€11,988), training migrants for “apprenticeships in media” (€140,077), and psychological counselling for “adults with migrant backgrounds” (€1,092,513).
Among the more obscure awards were €645,500 towards a “music festival for cultural integration” and €47,110 towards an equality garden, where migrants and native Germans can grow fruit and vegetables.
In all, the total paid out towards what the state of Saxony identified as “household costs” ran to €29,175,494.52.
The figures are just the latest revelation of the staggering cost of the migrant crisis, which has seen the German government take over exhibition halls, hotels, and even city parks to house hundreds of thousands of new arrivals.
The migrant crisis has touched almost all areas of German society, with costs spiralling in healthcare where a growing black hole caused by uninsured migrants threatening to hit one billion euros.
The extra costs in health care incurred by migrants will be passed on to taxpayers, according to reports. Dental care for migrants, who have been described as arriving in Europe with “catastrophic” teeth will also run to billions.
Education for young migrants is set to cost nearly a billion more a year, while the German army is facing a half-billion euro bill for their role in welcoming migrants to the country.
The Alternative for Germany party, whose freedom of information request brought to light more of these extraordinary costs is presently surging in German polls, and may be recognised as responsible for a lurch to the right of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Speaking to a congress of her party this week, Mrs. Merkel called for a burka ban in Germany and swore that the migrant crisis would not be repeated. The new stances are a significant departure from Merkel’s position a year ago which saw a dogged defence of multicultural values and welcome culture.
A recent poll had Merkel’s Christian Democrats at a low of 33 per cent, and the AfD at a high of 12 per cent.
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