Cash limit of €50 for payment cards would discriminate against refugees

The ombudsman’s office for the anti-discrimination law in Berlin has come to the conclusion that a cash limit of €50 for payment cards would discriminate against refugees, Seebrücke International said in a post.

Seebrücke International, a German NGO wants safe passages and an end of the criminalisation of civil sea rescue, said there is also no sufficient objective reason for a restrictive cash limit.

“The social courts in Hamburg and Nuremberg had also already overturned the €50 cash limit because circumstances such as age, illness or disabilities were not sufficiently taken into account by the rigid upper limit.

“It is not yet clear what the Berlin Senate’s position on the payment card will be. It is clear to us that the payment card deprives people with a history of flight of the opportunity for self-determination and democratic participation.”

Seebrücke International  averred that the payment card is disempowering, repressive and exclusionary. “We demand that it is no longer introduced and that it is abolished in the federal states where it has already been introduced! In many places where the payment card already exists, there are solidarity initiatives to support refugees with cash. Exchange your cash for vouchers there! We say no to the payment card!”