“Cash holdings and valuables can be secured [by the authorities] if they are over €750 (US$810) and if the person has an outstanding bill, or is expected to have one”, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told Bild newspaper on Thursday.

While proponents say the measures are necessary to ensure refugees pay for state assistance, others fear it could lead to discrimination of those seeking asylum.

“The practice in Bavaria and the federal rules set out in law correspond in substance with the process in Switzerland”, he added.

While in Baden-Wurttemberg, southwest Germany, refugees are permitted to keep cash and valuables worth as little as €350 (£265).

‘That includes, for example, family jewellery. “Those who apply for asylum are exercising their basic rights [under the German Constititution]”.

“That must not – even if they are rejected – be tied up with costs”, she argued.

Mr Ozoguz said: “As an asylum-seeker you shouldn’t be better off than a benefits claimant”.

And Steve Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights expert, told Express.co.uk: ‘These plans appear to be yet another disturbing step in a Europe-wide race to the bottom on refugee rights. But simply confiscating what little people fleeing persecution may have left in the world is a cruel and unjustified response to their plight’.

Among the migrants suing the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, some have been waiting on their asylum status ruling for more than a year.

German media reported in October on previous lawsuits filed by asylum-seekers against Berlin’s largest registration center, claiming they had not been registered promptly, a prerequisite for receiving social benefits.

Previous year roughly 1.1 million migrants traveled to Germany after Chancellor Angela Merkel rolled out the welcome mat.

Slow processing of asylum applications may account for some of the missing.

But he also said that in some cases refugees may not have stayed in Germany but instead gone on to a different country elsewhere in the EU.

Another possible explanation is that some refugees have applied many times, looking to get sent to the city of their choice.

Twitter accounts such as @SaveSwitzerland and @SaveDenmark have popped up, poking fun at what they believe is the hypocrisy of two wealthy European nations that shouldn’t have problems covering the costs of asylum-seekers.

Once the applicant’s county of origin has been taken, officials assign the refugee a place where they are to be cared for, and where they can then make an application for asylum. But the Daily Mail notes that of all the refugees that came in, only 476,649 of them have registered for asylum, meaning roughly 600,000 are essentially lost.