It is a move that was initiated in Denmark and Switzerland, where assets worth more than 1,300 euros (£992) and 900 euros (£687), respectively, are taken from those coming into the countries seeking refuge.

The government of Baden-Württemberg has implemented a stricter process, with police confiscating cash and valuables above €350 ($378).

German law says refugees must pay for their care and accommodation, such as in this gym in Munich.

“That includes, for example, family jewelry”.

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

In Bavaria, refugees are allowed to keep cash and valuables up to an estimated value of €750, but anything above that is confiscated.

Similar policies have caused controversy elsewhere in Europe but have been received largely without opposition in Germany, where attitudes towards the 1.1 million asylum seekers who arrived previous year have shifted in the wake of the Cologne attacks.

Migrants enter a train to Copenhagen, Denmark, on November 12, 2015 at the railway station in Flensburg, northern Germany.

Ulla Jelpke of Germany’s Left party said: ‘Those who apply for asylum are exercising their basic rights (under the German constitution).

The bill has also been criticized by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which said it “could fuel fear [and] xenophobia“. “That must not – even if they are rejected – be tied up with costs”, she said.

The Refugee authorities appear undecided towards migrant’s asylum application.

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.

Government statistics show that Germany registered 1.1million applications by the end of previous year under its EASY system, which does not record much more than an applicant’s country of origin.

According to German Interior Ministry spokesman Dr. Harald Neymanns, a third possibility is that at least some of these 600,000 refugees are applying multiple times under false identities.

“The Danish welfare state is based upon the very simple principle that the state will provide and pay for those unable to take care of themselves, not for those who are able”, said Kristian Jensen, the Danish foreign minister.

They targeted two refugee centres and seized 150 asylum seekers to question them.

This leaves over 600,000 unaccounted for, a figure that German authorities admitted may be due to delays in paperwork processing as the European nation attempts to deal with the enormous influx of migrants, mostly from the Middle East and North Africa.