The Ministry of the Interior is currently registering fewer arrests of people who entered Austria illegally. From mid-December to the first few days of January, a drop of 70 percent was registered, according to a broadcast today. The reason for this is the end of visa-free travel for Indian and Tunisian citizens in Serbia.
With the end of the visa-free regime in Serbia, the smugglers were deprived of part of their “business basis”, it was said. Indians and Tunisians paid between 2,000 and 5,000 euros to be towed from Serbia to Austria.
In addition to the end of the visa-free regime, the Ministry of the Interior refers to the intensive police controls, both on Austrian territory and in Hungary as part of “Operation Fox”. The most relevant route for Austria remains the eastern Mediterranean route, which leads to Austria via Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Serbia, Romania and Hungary. Protecting the external borders is therefore essential.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) describes the end of visa-free travel as an “important measure to limit the scope for organized crime”.
