Germany paves way for asylum seekers' debit card to control transfers

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany on Friday paved the way for the introduction of special debit cards that put limits on how and where asylum seekers can spend the financial benefits the receive, part of a tougher migration policy.

The three parliamentary groups of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government coalition agreed on a draft law that will be put to a vote in the nation's lower house, after the Green party came around to support it after months of negotiations.

Germany's regional states, some of which had already independently launched such shopping cards, had pushed for a nation-wide legal framework.

The card, designed to control benefits to asylum seekers and to prevent money transfers abroad, have long been debated as a tool to reduce cash benefits that the co-ruling liberal Free Democrats (FDP) have criticised as a false incentive for migration into Germany.

Chancellor Scholz and his Social Democrats (SPD) have been seeking to reduce the number of asylum seekers and stem support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

(Reporting by Holger Hansen in Berlin,; Writing by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)