"The benefits for refugees in Germany are quite high compared to other EU countries. This is part of the pull effect towards Germany," de Maiziere, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, said in an interview with the Rheinische Post regional daily.
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Under Merkel's impetus, Germany welcomed more than a million asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016, all of them ushered in by Maiziere's interior ministry.
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His comments on Saturday, two weeks ahead of legislative elections, were roundly criticised by the far-left Die Linke party and the German Greens.
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Aid for refugees "cannot be reduced below the subsistence minimum," argued Katrin Goering-Eckardt, head of the Greens parliamentary group.
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Merkel's Christian Democrats "are ready to do anything" for votes, she added.
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Die Linke deputy Jan Korte said that Maiziere was seeking to "disfigure the right to asylum".
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De Maiziere on Saturday stressed the need to harmonise asylum procedures for European nations, an issue already broached at EU-level.
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The European Union needs "a truly homogenous asylum system," he said.
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An asylum seeker arriving in Germany has the right to housing and up to €390 euros per month to cover food, clothing and other expenses.
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