The Chancellor wants to address the tense situation during his trip to Cyprus. Interior Minister Karner called on the EU to allow deportations to third countries such as Rwanda, following the British example.
Prior to his trip to Lebanon, Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) sharply criticized the EU’s asylum system. Austria is confronted with increasing migration pressure, Nehammer complained on Monday. Around 31,000 asylum applications had been registered by the end of June. This is an increase of 185 percent compared to the same period last year.
In an EU comparison, Austria bears the second largest burden per capita after Cyprus and is ahead of Malta, Greece and Germany. Around 80 percent of asylum seekers would come to Europe via smugglers. The Ukraine war fueled this business further. So far, Austria has taken in around 80,000 displaced persons from Ukraine.
The Chancellor also wants to address the tense situation during his visit to Cyprus in the next few days, as he announced in a broadcast. Nehammer embarks on a trip to Israel, Cyprus and Lebanon on Monday. Lebanon has taken in the most refugees in the world.
Karner wants to examine deportations to third countries
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) wants to discuss the deportation of illegal immigrants in non-EU-Discuss states along the lines of Great Britain. One should look at how Great Britain is doing or Denmark is planning, said Karner on Monday at a meeting of the EU– Interior Minister in Prague. “The situation with illegal migration is indeed dramatic,” said the interior minister.
An agreement between Great Britain and Rwanda stipulates that people who have entered the country illegally will be denied access to an asylum procedure. Instead, the migrants – regardless of their nationality – should be sent to Rwanda and apply for asylum there. A return is not planned. The European Court of Human Rights stopped the first flight with asylum seekers in mid-June with a temporary injunction. Denmark has announced similar plans.
“I know it’s not legally possible yet, but we should discuss it and talk about it,” said Karner. Initially, it is not about specific countries, but about whether it would be possible in principle.
External border protection and procedures in third countries
Not only Austria, but all of Europe is affected. On the one hand, the smugglers are becoming increasingly brazen about Europe being open because of the displaced people from Ukraine. On the other hand, the economic situation in many countries is driving people to flee.
“But we also have to say clearly: That’s not what the asylum system is for,” says Karner. Austria is taking national measures through increased border controls. Karner also called for measures at European level “that we create regulations in the asylum system that do not result in what we have now”.
Austria is the second most heavily burdened by illegal migration of all European countries, although it is a landlocked country, said Karner. In particular, Karner wants to address the issues of external border protection and procedures in third countries in Prague.
One is only at the very beginning of the discussion, so Karner. “But let’s look at the experiences. The aim must be to prevent people from being trafficked across the Mediterranean Sea, where they are at risk of drowning, or in trucks via the Balkan route, where they are at risk of suffocating threaten.”
Weapons smuggling is also increasing
In the shadow of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, Karner also sees increasing arms smuggling. According to the Minister of the Interior, organized crime is trying to organize its business here. Karner thanked the Czech EU– Presidency to put the issue on the agenda in order to be able to prevent smuggling through controls and police cooperation.
Die EU-For years, countries have not been able to agree on a reform of the European asylum system. Several Eastern European countries and Austria reject a distribution of refugees within the EU strictly off.
(APA)