Not the Onion: "Refugees in Germany go on ‘vacation’ to war-torn homelands"

"The information was unveiled by the outlet Die Welt am Sonntag, citing its own investigation. The inquiry included testimonies from registered asylum seekers in Germany who are entitled to so-called HARTZ-IV social benefits. Some of them confirmed to the newspaper that they “traveled for a short period of time back to countries like Syria, Afghanistan or Lebanon.”"

There are such cases,” an unnamed spokesperson for the German Federal Employment Office (BA) confirmed to the publication. The representative, however, stressed that no official numbers are available.

“We do not conduct any analysis or statistics on this subject and therefore we do not have any information,” the source added. The body is now trying to figure out the number of refugees opting for such a “vacation” in their homeland.

According to the current rules applying to asylum seekers claiming social benefits in Germany, they are eligible to leave the country for a total of 21 days per year. Migrants however are not obliged to report to authorities where they are traveling, but merely when and for how long.

“There is no legal ground to demand that information from him,” BA said, as quoted by Die Welt am Sonntag. Should authorities still get aware of a refugee heading back to states like Syria or Iraq, they are “not allowed to pass that information to other authorities due to the data privacy.”