GERMANY is offering to pay migrants’ rental costs in their countries of origin, as the country tackles the “challenge” of migration.

In a controversial move, the Interior Ministry has launched an ad campaign to bump up the number of voluntary repatriations.

4 The controversial poster has gone up across 80 cities in Germany Credit: Reuters

The ministry says that there are “currently over 235,000 persons from different countries of origin who are required to leave Germany.”

So it has plastered 2,400 posters nationwide, in seven different languages – including Arabic, Russian, English and Farsi – bearing the slogan “Your country! Your Future! Now!”

RT News says the ads offer migrants the chance of having the German government pay their rental costs in their countries of origin for the next year.

The unusual move follows a drop in the number of voluntary returns among migrants and asylum seekers, from 29,000 taking part in the scheme in 2017, to 14,000 by the end of last month.

4 Angela Merkel said that 'migration poses challenges' Credit: Reuters

But the advertising has provoked criticism, with Konstantin von Notz, deputy head of the Greens faction in the Bundestag, telling Berliner Morgenpost: “The latest campaign of the interior ministry looks like a sort of a winter sales and that is cynical.

“It is apparently aimed at concealing [the ministry’s] own failures and improving the figures related to people, who voluntarily left the country, before the end of the year.”

RT News reports that others have also hit out, calling the campaign “horrible” and “inhumane”, as some have interpreted the slogan’s true message as saying, “Germany is not your land and your future is not here.”

German media has recently reported the country’s Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, as labelling migration as the “mother of all political problems” in Germany, says broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

4 The posters are used in seven different languages: German, English, French, Arabic, Russian, Pashto and Farsi Credit: Reuters

Angela Merkel, however, has moved to downplay fears, telling RTL television: “I say that the question of migration poses challenges.”

She has drawn intense criticism for what has been described as her open-door policy toward refugees.

The Interior Ministry explains on its website that its “Your Land – Your Future – Now” campaign “is to draw attention throughout Germany to the current possibilities of reintegration support after voluntary return, in the form of a housing subsidy in the country of origin.”

It adds: "The campaign is aimed at all persons required to leave the country.

"The campaign is not aimed at people who live legally in Germany. Your legal stay will not be questioned.”

4 The move has been slammed by some people on social media

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Between 2013 and 2017, a total of 142,867 people have received a grant through a programme for asylum seekers in Germany to have a financially supported return journey to their country of origin, or a third country.

This equates to a subsidy of about €550 per person.

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