BERLIN, April 19 (Reuters) - Germany is planning to spend 26.6 billion euros ($29.09 billion) on refugees this year, about 3 billion euros less than the year before, the Finance Ministry confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday.
"The German government will spend a total of 26.6 billion euros on refugees and will not leave the states and municipalities to cope with this extraordinary situation on their own," a spokesperson for the ministry said.
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"This is despite the fact that, according to our constitution, the reception, accommodation and care of refugees are the responsibility of the federal states, also in financial terms," the spokesperson added.
($1 = 0.9143 euros)
 
Germany: Number of refugees reaches new high
Sept 20, 2024
 
There are more refugees living in Germany than ever in recent history, according to German government data. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has contributed to the increase in refugees in Germany.
 
 
Refugees in a waiting room in Gie?en, Germany Refugees make up around 4% of Germany's populationImage: Boris Roessler/dpa/picture alliance
 

The number of refugees living in Germany reached a new high this year, according to government figures released on Friday.

Some 3.48 million refugees with varying types of residency permits were living in Germany at the end of June 2024 — roughly 60,000 more than at the end of 2023.

One-third of these refugees came from Ukraine.

The number also includes some individuals who are obliged to leave Germany but remain in the country under a tolerance policy that covers a number of situations, such as illness, a lack of identification documents, or people whose children have a residence permit.

The statistics were provided in response to a request by the socialist Left Party in parliament and first reported by the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.

Left lawmaker decries 'scaremongering'

The number of asylum-seekers has recently become a point of political contention in Germany and Europe more broadly.

But Left Party lawmaker Clara Bünger, who made the request, said the figures show that refugees make up just 4% of the population, and said some of those people have been in the country for decades.

She said the figures stand "in clear contradiction to the misleading portrayal of an alleged 'national emergency.'"

"Such scaremongering deliberately distracts from actual social problems and uses fear to make refugees a scapegoat," Bünger added.

zc/sms (dpa, epd, AFP)