MIGRANT rights groups in Germany hit back today at new limits on cash benefit payments for asylum-seekers.

The new rule, which was passed by the German parliament last month, calls for asylum-seekers to receive their benefits on a card for use at local shops and to pay for services. 

They will only be able to withdraw limited amounts of cash and won’t be able to transfer money outside Germany. 

The government says the aim is to prevent migrants from sending money to family and friends abroad, or to smugglers.

But migrant rights groups have slammed the new regulation as discriminatory.

They say the new rules are being implemented in a country that’s still much more cash-centric than many other European countries and where some businesses, especially restaurants, won’t even accept card payments.

The groups say people fleeing war and persecution won’t be deterred from coming to Germany just because their benefits will no longer be paid out in cash only. 

Instead, they claim that the payment cards will single out migrants and may possibly add to them being ostracised further.

Wiebke Judith from Pro Asyl said: “It has to be said quite clearly that people are coming because of civil war and persecution — they won’t be deterred by a payment card. 

“The aim here is to create an instrument of discrimination and to bully refugees.”

The number of people applying for asylum in Germany last year rose to more than 350,000, an increase of just over 50 per cent compared with the year before.

The largest number of asylum-seekers came from Syria, followed by Turks and Afghans.

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, has been successfully exploiting Germans’ hardening attitudes toward migrants and expects to make significant gains in the European elections and the federal polls next year.