At the moment, many people from India, Pakistan, Algeria, Tunisia or Morocco are being arrested, Interior Minister Karner said at the presentation of the 2021 smuggling report.
According to the Interior Ministry, the war in Ukraine has once again fueled the traffickers’ businesses. They also announce to migrants from countries that have no chance of asylum in Austria that the borders in Europe are open because of the war. At the moment, a particularly large number of people from India, Pakistan, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco are being arrested, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) told a press conference in Vienna on Monday.
Karner and Gerald Tatzgern, heads of the Federal Criminal Police’s central anti-smuggling office, presented the 2021 smuggling report on World Refugee Day. The numbers were higher only in the years 2015 and 2016, which were shaped by the wave of refugees during the Syrian civil war. For this year, the number of seizures in the first five months indicates an even greater increase. However, the interior minister did not want to get involved in accurate forecasts.
“Last year was also marked by the pandemic,” Karner said. This still hampered the smugglers’ business. However, there has been a significant increase in arrests of human traffickers. In 2020 – also influenced by the pandemic – there were 311 people arrested on suspicion of smuggling, in 2021 that number rose to 441, the highest number in the last five years. This year there were more than 200 arrests in the first five months.
76,000 war refugees in the country
The war in Ukraine also has a strong impact on the situation of refugees in Austria. According to Karner, there are 76,000 war refugees in the country. 56,000 are in primary care. This year, 9,000 positive asylum decisions were issued, in addition to around 20,000 negative ones.
The situation caused by the war is having a great impact on the work of the police, the army and aid organizations in Burgenland. The APA has received reports—actually, calls for help—that registration offices at border posts are being raided. Capacities would have to be six to seven times greater to be able to handle the rush in the registry offices. The result is that many people have to stay at the borders for several days, in stifling heat, without adequate sleeping accommodation, sanitation facilities, water and food supplies, support staff and medical care. Karner said he would assess the situation and “react as quickly as possible if necessary.”