Germany’s Cabinet agreed on Wednesday to introduce an identity card for refugees as it tries to better control the wave of migrants arriving from Syria, Afghanistan and other trouble spots.

Around one million refugees are expected to arrive in Germany this year and local authorities have struggled to cope with scale and pace of the influx.

The cards will include information on refugees’ date and place of birth, nationality and gender, as well as a photo and details on height and eye colour. Registration centres will also take fingerprints.

“This way we can try and better detect people who are trying to disguise their identity,” interior minister Thomas De Maiziere said in a statement.

The government hopes to start handing the cards out by mid February, once the ID cards have been approved by Parliament, with the aim of having them fully introduced by next year.

Elsewhere in Greece, the police on Wednesday loaded hundreds of migrants who have been stranded for three weeks at the Macedonian border on to buses bound for Athens, ending their hopes of reaching northern Europe.

Meanwhile, Finland’s government will require asylum seekers to work for free and to acknowledge a “national curriculum” on Finnish culture and society, it said on Tuesday, launching measures to tighten its immigration policy.

It will also regularly reassess conditions in the asylum seekers’ home countries twice a year, and if necessary, cancel residence permits accordingly.