A Syrian migrant has sparked outrage after allegedly using his four wives and 23 children to rake in over £320,000 a year in benefits.
The man named only as Ghazia A fled Syriawith his huge family last year and has since settled in Germany.
He doesn’t work and instead lives off the huge benefit bung, according to a financial manager who worked out what the state is liable to fork out.
There is no official confirmation of the £320,000 figure.
Under Islamic law a man can marry up to four wives as long as he is able to give them financial support.
However, German law does not recognise polygamous marriages.
But instead of the marriages being ignored, the refugeewas given special leeway to choose his “main wife”.
The other three women were then categorised as “friends” in an arrangement a local official described as an “exemption”, German daily Rhein-Zeitung reports.
Gazia, 49, lives with his “main” wife Twasif and their five children in the Rhineland-Palatinate town and visits his other families that live in the surrounding area every few days.
He said he used to run a garage and car hire service in Syria before the country’s descent into civil war, allowing him to provide for his family.
However he has not worked since the move to Europe last year on the back of ChancellorAngela Merkel‘s open door policy.
He told German daily Bildhe was committed to his families: “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.”