The German government prolonged for a year allocation of aid for the country's states and municipalities over the influx of migrants and refugees, the government's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said on Wednesday.
BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) The German government prolonged for a year allocation of aid for the country's states and municipalities over the influx of migrants and refugees, the government's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said on Wednesday.
"The government is prolonging for one more year [allocation of] aid to cover the costs of refugees' reception ... That was decided today during the government's session, the aid is being allocated for states and municipalities. The financing is being mainly ensured via redistribution of the value-added tax," Seibert said.
The spokesman said that the German government would pay to the states and municipalities 482 million Euros ($554 million) in advance in 2019. According to Seibert, Berlin will also spend about 2.4 billion euros on integration efforts.
"The high level of the Federal government's participation in reception of migrants remains in force," Seibert added.
Germany has become one of the countries most affected by the migration crisis in Europe, which broke out in 2015 with a huge influx of people fleeing armed conflicts in the middle East and North Africa. Germany currently has the largest share of migrants in the total population among EU states 12 percent, according to the World Population Review.
