Olaf Scholz is reportedly preparing to slash welfare benefits for some refugees to the bare essentials of “bed, bread, and soap”.

Following the Islamic State-inspired terror attack in Solingen last Friday, the German chancellor is said to be preparing new measures to tackle illegal migration.

According to reports from various German media outlets, Mr Scholz will cut all welfare payments for migrants previously registered in other EU countries.

Under EU law refugees must apply for asylum in the first country they enter. However, many migrants continue their journey to Germany and other northern European nations after arriving on the Mediterranean coast.

For the past decade, Berlin has largely ignored the so-called Dublin regulation and allowed migrants to file a second asylum application in Germany.

Cases where the country has tried to enforce the rules have frequently been thwarted by legal challenges. German courts have often ruled that countries such as Greece fail to meet the EU’s basic requirements for migrant care, including adequate shelter, food, and hygiene.

Additionally, attempts to deport migrants have been hampered by the reluctance of other EU members to take them back.

Last year, Berlin suspended its participation in a pact to distribute migrants arriving in Italy, citing Rome’s refusal to implement the Dublin rules.

Mr Scholz is facing mounting pressure to clamp down on illegal migration after a Syrian man killed three people with a kitchen knife at a street festival last week.

The assailant, who arrived in Germany in 2022 after being registered in Bulgaria, had been on a deportation list for over a year.

Migration authorities, however, only made one attempt to detain him, which failed due to the fact that he wasn’t in his room in an asylum centre when they arrived.

German law at the time forbade the officers from searching through further rooms in the centre.

Within Scholz’s coalition, the Green Party are calling for a “Zeitenwende” in public safety – a reference to the chancellor’s declaration of a new era of defense spending following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Complaining that Germany’s remains “stuck in old ways of thinking,” the Greens advocate handing police increased powers to investigate covertly on social media platforms while also rationalising the country’s tangled web of federal and state police services.