In . – 03/01/2023 03:12 pm (act. 03/01/2023 03:14 pm)
Nehammer and Karner are in favor of close cooperation with the Western Balkan states and Hungary. ©APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER (archive image)
Austria wants to continue to cooperate closely with Serbia and Hungary on the issue of migration. Federal Chancellor Nehammer and Interior Minister Karner welcome the suspension of visa-free travel for Indians in Serbia.
“The asylum brake is taking effect,” Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) referred to Serbia’s lifting of visa-free travel for Indians on Jan. 1 in a statement on Tuesday. Austria wants to “intensely continue” the “close cooperation” with the states of the Western Balkans and Hungary, announced Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP). “The close cooperation with the Western Balkan states and Hungary is a decisive factor in the fight against the human smuggling mafia. We will continue this intensively this year,” said Karner.
India wants to take back illegally entered Indians
According to the Ministry of the Interior, 18,000 asylum applications were made by Indians in Austria last year. According to Home Office statistics as of late November 2022, nearly 3,500 applications have been rejected and only 33 Indians have received a legally binding residence permit. According to this, 8,750 lawsuits are still open. There are no Indians in the “top 10 countries of origin in basic services” statistics. India has promised to take back Indians who entered illegally. Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar agreed a matching migration and mobility partnership with Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) on Monday.
Above all, men from India and Tunisia flew to Belgrade without a visa and then entered the European Union with the help of smugglers. In Austria, India and Tunisia rank third and fourth in asylum statistics, after Afghanistan and Syria. In fact, they have little chance of asylum. Since the end of visa exemption for Tunisians in Serbia, on November 20, there has been a drop of around 93% in applications from Tunisians, according to the Federal Chancellery. At the end of November, there were almost 12,500.
Also critical of cooperation with Hungary and Serbia
However, Austria’s cooperation with Hungary and Serbia was also met with criticism. Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) recently said that the problems with migration are indeed in Hungary, because most unregistered transfers to Austria take place there. NEOS boss Beate Meinl-Reisinger also voiced strong criticism. Hungary and Serbia lack solidarity and do not abide by the law. Instead, Austria should look to other EU countries that are also affected by heavy illegal migration as partners in an “axis of goodwill”. She cited Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Italy as examples.