21 Asylum Seekers Cost Town €500,000 a Month

A migrant home in a small German town is costing taxpayers more than €500,000 per month to house just 21 migrants, and other facilities are facing similarly disproportionate costs.

The German town of Bad Berleburg has a population of some 19,000 people — 21 of which are asylum seekers residing in the facility. The housing complex has room for 500 asylum seekers, and while it presently holds less than five per cent of its capacity the facility costs €514,697.47 a month to operate, reports local paper Westfalenpost.

The facility runs at such a massive cost because, despite the small number of inhabitants, many expenses must be accounted for. They include rent of the property, costs for a full staff of security guards, interpreters, and supervisors, who are all under contract in the expectation that the migrant home would be housing a full 500 migrants.

Other operating costs for food, sewage disposal, consumable goods, and other optional items are also included in the massive half-million euro monthly budget.

The migrant home in Bad Berleburg is not the only one facing this problem in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia. In Wickede-Wimbern, 54 migrants are housed at the facility at a cost of €741,900.80 per month. A migrant home in Bad Laasphe does not house a single migrant but costs €620,019.63 per month to run. The most expensive home in Mohnesee, which has a capacity for 1,000 migrants, houses 370 and costs nearly €1.2 million a month.

The total population of all nine migrant homes in the state is 1,625 asylum seekers, while the total capacity is 5,030. Given the figures listed, the government could hold all the asylum seekers in the two largest homes, which hold 1,000 and 650 respectively, and would save the state €4,057,236 per month.

The costs of the migrant crisis for the German people has risen multiple times as reports claim that more money is needed to fulfil the growing demands. Earlier this year, the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said that the entire budget surplus would be needed solely to fund migrant services.