Thursday, April 28, 2016

Austria backs law allowing asylum seekers to be sent back at the border

By            ULIANA PAVLOVA

The Austrian parliament on Wednesday passed a controversial law which allows asylum claims to be rejected at the border, just days after the anti-immigrant Freedom Party won big in the first round of presidential elections.

The new law allows the government to declare a “state of emergency” if migrant numbers suddenly rise and to reject the claims of most asylum-seekers at the border. Only those who can prove they are in danger or who have immediate family members in Austria would be allowed in. An exception could be made for women with small children and for unaccompanied minors.

The state of emergency would come into force for six months but could be extended for three more six-month periods.

The law must still be passed by Austria’s second parliamentary chamber, which is a formality, and the interior ministry expects to begin enforcing it at the start of June.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi criticized the Austrians, saying they were acting “shamelessly against European rules, as well as being against history, against logic and against the future.”

However, Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka blamed other EU countries for “failing to do their part” on migration, saying: “We cannot shoulder the whole world’s burden.”

Austria received around 90,000 asylum requests in 2015, the second-highest number in the EU per capita, according to AP.


On Sunday, Norbert Hofer of the far-right Freedom Party shocked the political establishment when he won the first round of a presidential election on an anti-migrant platform.

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