In Austria, 21,000 people have applied for asylum in the past five months, which corresponds to an increase of 150 percent compared to the same period in 2021. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) justified this today with the increased controls and the fact that traffickers aggressively advertise that the borders in Europe are open due to the war in Ukraine. The Minister of the Interior wants to take countermeasures with another package of measures.
As a result of the marketing of the smugglers, more and more people from countries who have almost no chance of asylum would make their way to Europe. There is significant growth from Tunisia, Pakistan, India and Turkey, for example. This is clearly “economic migration”, as Karner emphasized. In the first five months, 270 people smugglers were arrested in Austria (plus 30 percent).
Karner wants to prevent a further increase in illegal border crossings with another package of measures. The three areas of action include: protection of the EU’s external borders, increased cooperation with Hungary and the western Balkan states, and intensified controls at the Austrian border. “Only if these different measures work together can we survive in the fight against people smuggling and illegal migration,” said Karner.