Germany has begun taking cash and sentimental jewellery from wealthier refugees in return for aid.

The measure has been introduced to pay for the more than 1.1million migrants who have entered the European country last year.

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.

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Germany has begun taking cash and sentimental jewellery from wealthier refugees in return for aid. Pictured are migrants arriving in Dortmund last year

The measure has been introduced to pay for the more than 1.1million migrants who have entered the European country last year

In Bavaria, Germany, refugees are now only allowed to keep cash and items worth 750 euros (£578), according to The Times.

Tougher measures are in place in Baden-Wurttemberg, were authorities will take any over 350 euros (£270), the Daily Express reports. 

Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrman said: ‘The practice in Bavaria and the federal rules set out in law correspond in substance with the process already in place in Switzerland.

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Aydan Özoguz, the federal government’s integration commissioner, said: ‘If you apply for asylum here, you must use up your income and wealth before receiving aid.

‘That includes, for example, family jewellery. Even if some prejudices persist – you don’t have it any better as an asylum seeker as someone on unemployment benefit.’

The move, which is strikingly similar to Germany in 1939 during World War II, has even been backed by opposition Green Party MP, Volker Beck, who said: ‘Of course asylum seekers aren’t in a better position than those on unemployment benefits.

‘Asylum seekers must repay the costs of accommodation and care to the state.’

Migrants enter a train to Copenhagen, Denmark, on November 12, 2015 at the railway station in Flensburg, northern Germany.  In Denmark, refugees are reportedly allowed to keep wedding rings and other sentimental assets

In Denmark, refugees are reportedly allowed to keep wedding rings and other sentimental assets, but the UN High Commission for Refugees has criticised the move due, saying it will ‘fuel fear and xenophobia’.

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

‘That must not, even if they are rejected, be tied up with costs.’ 

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.

‘It is reasonable to expect those who can support themselves to do so. But simply confiscating what little people fleeing persecution may have left in the world is a cruel and unjustified response to their plight.’

Glum: Angela Merkel has come under increasing pressure over her open-doors migrant policy as it emerged more than 200 migrants were suing her government for taking too long to process their asylum applications. Pictured right: Migrants walk in the so-called ‘Mahgreb Quarter’ in Duesseldorf, Germany

Meanwhile, the MailOnline revealed that the German government is unable to say where more than half of the one million asylum seekers allowed into the country have ended up.

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

German Interior Ministry spokesman Dr Harald Neymanns admitted that delays in the processing of asylum seeker applications would account for some of those 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. 

A third explanation is that the refugees may not have existed in the first place – because some asylum seekers have been found to apply multiple times in an attempt to get sent to the city of their choice. 

Asylum-seekers walk in to a refugee reception facility in Dortmund, Germany, on August 13, 2015

It is the responsibility of the location and state where they are assigned to care for them, and provide accommodation.

North Rhine Westphalia, which includes Cologne, takes far more of the immigrants than any other part of Germany with 21 per cent, whereas Bremen takes the least with less than 1 per cent. In the capital Berlin it is just over 5 per cent.

The asylum seeker is then expected to make their application for asylum once they arrive at the end state destination.

But of those refugees, only 476,649 – 326,529 men and 50,120 women – have so far gone through with the process and registered for asylum. 

That means more than 600,000 are unaccounted for.