Israelis who may fear that European Union nations would look unfavorably at their country’s efforts to rid itself of some 60 thousand illegal migrant workers from Africa, may have less to worry about, as Germany is in the process of initiating a similar policy.
Germans have been complaining for years now about the influx of Rumanian and Bulgarian immigrants who are abusing the country’s social welfare system, Der Spiegel reports. Some German communities have been claiming that an increasing number of people are arriving from Rumania and Bulgaria with the help of organized gangs, obtaining a business license and applying for benefits a few months later under the presence that the business has been unsuccessful.
On Friday, Germany’s Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told an audience of his European counterparts in Luxembourg that Germany will take measures to prevent poor immigrants from those two Eastern European countries from entering under false pretenses to collect welfare benefits.
Friedrich says that those who are found to be defrauding social services will be expelled from the country, despite the fact that they are granted the right to work and travel throughout Germany, since they are citizens of the European Union. They will also be banned from returning to Germany for a certain length of time, Friedrich added, saying: “Then, if they are picked up somewhere, they can be kicked out of the country again with little hassle, and this is crucial.”