One Syrian landed last year in Germany with his family of four wives and 23 children, in the invited flood of one million refugees. He recently raised shock waves after it was reported that he was receiving an astounding sum of 360,000 Euros as benefits for the year.
That tidy sum works out to 392904 USD.
His real name is not disclosed. Ghazia A - as he known in the media - has "resettled" in Germany, though one of his daughters shifted back to Saudi Arabia and married.
While a financial manager on the Employers' Association website calculated that he was getting a huge sum of 360,000 Euros, there is no official confirmation of the amount.
Germany does not legally sanction or recognize polygamy. Yet, it is footing the bill for his "large family." He was given special exemption, so Ghazia had to select a "main wife", with the rest of the family taking benefits as "friends" of Ghazia. In Montabaur, an official had said that it was a situation that could be called an "exemption". The secondary wives shifted to nearby communities almost 31 miles away, while Ghazia lives with the "main wife" Twasif and their five children.
Ghazia, who was earlier employed in a garage and car hire service in his homeland, has not worked since he shifted and settled in Germany. Though he said he wanted to work again, he pleaded that he had too many commitments to his family, which made it difficult for him to get employed, he said.
He explained this strange situation to German newspaper Bild: "In our religion, it is my duty to visit every family and to be with them. I am practically all the time go to with my family to be together - and I would like to find work again."
There is a lot of outrage against Ghazia. The incident immediately roused anger, with one tweet in a social media exclaiming: "Of course, the #Syrian (49) lives with his 4 women & 22 children from #Social benefits, from what else?!"
"The Syrian with 4 women and 23 children is now being sold to us as a new normality" fumed another.
