With more than half of German welfare payments going to foreign migrants, the state of Saxony-Anhalt has cut the benefits of asylum seekers who refused to pick up debris following heavy flooding in east Germany.

The Daily Mail reports that 64 migrants had been written to by local authorities demanding they help clear rubbish and erect dykes after devastating floods in the area at the end of last year which saw hundreds of residents in parts of Germany forced to evacuate.

39 people agreed to help, while the rest, who are said to be from Syria, Afghanistan, Niger, Mali and Albania, failed to turn up.

The district council has now declared that the 15 asylum seekers who had no excuse to take part in the clean-up will have their asylum benefits cut in half to €232 (£195) a month for three months.

According to the Asylum Seekers’ Benefits Act in Germany, if community service is refused without reason, the right to benefits is limited.

This comes just a week after Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said he was in favor of cutting social benefits for asylum seekers who enter Germany via another EU country.

“The Dublin system applies, according to which the EU state in which a refugee entered the EU is responsible for him. But many still come to Germany,” he said.

Asylum seekers are already entitled to support in the country when they first enter.

“They cannot expect to live off the solidarity of people here if they do not want to return,” he stressed.

“That is certainly controversial, but we must continue to address these pull factors that are currently attracting too many people to us irregularly,” he added. 

This comes as Germany struggles to manage the massive wave of so-called asylum seekers (as we previously highlighted, statistics also show that around 6 out of 10 violent crimes in Germany are committed by foreign migrants) while also appeasing a growing proportion of voters who recognize that perhaps ‘diversity is not our strength’ after all, driving support for the AfD party (and its anti-immigrant policies).