Germany: Cost of Migrants for 2016? €20 Billion

Germany will spend more than €20 billion on 'refugees' in 2016, one of the world's top trade research centres has reported. The mass influx of migrants has already cost the government around €9.2 billion in the first half of this year, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) has calculated.

The projected migrant bill could be even higher than €20 billion, however, as the study does not account for a scenario where the number of migrants arriving sharply increases.

The huge expenditure includes "additional staff" at the Federal Police and at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), as well as spending on "the initial supply in lodging or local health services, and inputs such as housing rental", the report explains.

"This is a substantial sum, but given that it makes up around 1.4 per cent of the total national budget, it will be manageable," Dr. Jens Boysen-Hogrefe of the IfW claimed in a statement.

However, the migrant bill is significantly more than the federal government spends on education -- the departmental budget for the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in 2016 was just €16.4 billion.

On Monday, new data from the Federal Statistics Office showed that the number of migrants claiming German welfare benefits soared by 169 per cent last year, with nearly a million cashing in at the end of 2015.

The increase in police numbers may be necessary as migrants in Germany either have committed or planned to carry out nearly 70,000 crimes in the first three months of 2016 alone, a police report revealed in June.

Furthermore, a report by the Interior Ministry released in May revealed that migrants were disproportionately represented in crime statistics and were responsible for an increase in crime in Germany overall.