Before the chancellor and interior minister left for Morocco, the government published declining asylum numbers.

Vienna. 2022 was a year of record migration: With more than 100,000 asylum claims, even the numbers from the crisis years 2015 and 2016 were overshadowed, only Cyprus had higher claim numbers relative to Europe’s population. Statistics suggest that a large proportion of asylum seekers will move quickly to other countries; exactly how many and where there are refugees not seeking basic care is unclear. E: In addition to the large number of asylum seekers, tens of thousands of Ukrainians sought protection in Austria because of the Russian invasion; As per the current situation, more than 50,000 displaced people from Ukraine are receiving basic care from the state. Including asylum seekers, as of early February 2023, there were over 91,000 migrants in basic care. For comparison: at the beginning of 2016 there were less than 80,000.

After months of intense debates, the government is now announcing the first success stories: on Sunday, the Ministry of the Interior announced new numbers – and in fact they show a new drop. According to the department, 4,288 asylum applications were made in January 2023; compared to the previous month, in which more than 7,000 applications were made, this corresponds to a drop of around 40 percent. The numbers had already dropped by the end of 2022.

“The brake on the asylum is picking up”

According to the Ministry of the Interior, the drop is due to measures that were also taken with Austrian involvement. For example, the abolition of the Serbian visa-free regime for Indians and Tunisians would reduce the number of applications because they would travel further west of Serbia with smugglers. Background: Indians were one of the strongest nations in Austria’s asylum statistics last year, but they hardly received asylum. According to the Ministry of the Interior, another reason for the slowdown in the situation is the “intensive controls by the Austrian police”, “also in Hungarian national territory within the framework of Operation Fox”. In all, “the asylum brake would come into effect,” the ministry said.

Alone: ​​Asylum numbers are still relatively high. It is true that applications may have declined in January – compared to January 2022, there was an increase of around a quarter. E: In January 2023, almost three times as many asylum applications were made as in January 2021. The department of the interior, however, explains that the last three weeks of January, in particular, brought a sharp decline – which should continue in February: “An additional 40% drop from January 2023 can be expected.” The majority of applications in January were made by asylum seekers from Morocco, however statistically their chances of receiving a positive asylum decision are slim.

That’s why Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (both ÖVP) want to talk about one topic in particular during their two-day trip to Morocco this week, the Interior Ministry explained: illegal migration and “readmission”. (kk)

The fire service said there were more than 200 people on board the ship, 80 of whom were rescued.

Portal/Giuseppe Pipita
Remains of a ship are seen along the beach where bodies of suspected refugees were found after a shipwreck in Cutro, on the east coast of the Calabria region, Italy, on Sunday.

One shipwreck took place this Sunday the 26th on the coast of Italynear the town of Crotone in Calabria, left at least 59 dead migrants, including a baby a few months old. The episode takes place days after a controversial law was passed to rescue migrants at sea. “So far the number of confirmed deaths is 59,” Mayor Vincenzo Voce told Sky news channel TG24. According to rescue teams, the ship was carrying more than 120 people and crashed into some rocks a few meters from shore. According to the regional fire department, more than 200 people were on board. “So far, 80 people have been rescued, some have been able to reach shore after the shipwreck,” the Coast Guard said in a statement. Images released by Italian police show pieces of wood scattered on the beach where rescue teams were headed while those rescued waited to be taken to a reception centre.

A Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, leader of the farright party Fratelli d’Italia, spoke of “deep pain” and declared that it was “criminal, a ship only 20 meters long with 200 people on board and with a bad weather forecast (…) The government is committed to Leaving and preventing these kinds of tragedies. And it will continue to do so, most notably calling for greater cooperation from sending and sending countries,” he said in a statement. The President of the Calabria Region, Roberto Occhiuto, published a note lamenting the situation: “Dozens and dozens of drowned people, including children, many missing. Calabria mourns this terrible tragedy.” After the tragedy, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen defended the urgency of pressing ahead with the reform of asylum law in the European Union. “There is a need to redouble efforts on the Compact for Migration and Asylum and the Central Mediterranean Action Plan,” he said. For his part, Pope Francis expressed his “pain” and said he was praying “for each individual, for those who are missing and for the other migrants who have survived”.

Sunday’s shipwreck comes just days after Italy’s parliament passed controversial rules to save migrants, backed by the farright government. The new law obliges humanitarian ships to conduct only one rescue per sea voyage. Critics of the measure say the rule increases the risk of death in the central Mediterranean, an area believed to be the world’s most dangerous crossing for migrants. According to the Interior Ministry, almost 14,000 migrants have entered Italy since the beginning of the year, compared to 5,200 in the same period last year and 4,200 in 2021. For Minister Matteo Piantedosi, “the tragedy shows how absolutely necessary it is to fight resolutely against illegal immigration networks”. .

*With information from AFP

Conservatives are again calling for Justin Trudeau’s chief of staff, Katie Telford, to appear “immediately” before the House Procedures and Affairs Committee (PROC) after fresh revelations about allegations of China’s interference in the 2021 federal election.

Posted at 10:11 am

“Each allegation in this history of Chinese Communist Party interference in the election is more shocking than the last,” St. Albert-Edmonton MP Michael Cooper said in a statement Sunday.

He was responding to a Global News report Friday night that, citing anonymous sources, claimed that Liberal MP Han Dong, elected in Toronto’s Don Valley North, “received help from the Chinese Consulate in Toronto to become a Liberal in 2019.” Candidate in Riding”.

PHOTO FROM HAN DONG’S FACEBOOK PAGE

Han Dong, Liberal MP for Don Valley North

Citing a “combination of documents” from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and sources, Global News claims that “the consulate allegedly sent two busloads of elderly Chinese Canadians to the Northern Liberal nominating meeting in the Don Valley, and that these elderly people knew who to vote for because Dong’s name was written on her arm.” Chinese students were also reportedly forced to vote for the candidate in order to “keep their visas.”

According to the outlet, reports were submitted to the Liberal Party by CSIS in September 2019, but Han Dong’s candidacy was approved nonetheless.

“It would be beyond outrageous if the Prime Minister were informed that one of his Liberal candidates has been compromised by the Chinese Communist Party and is flatly refusing to do the right thing,” Cooper continued, judging that this was “vital for confidence.” “Be in our democracy that we know what Justin Trudeau and his government knew and when”.

The prime minister’s key aide, chief of staff Katie Telford, “must therefore appear before the committee to tell us what she knows,” he concluded. Prime Minister Trudeau’s office declined to comment on the situation on Sunday.

Extensive investigations are underway

Recall that on Tuesday members of the House of Commons’ Procedures and Affairs Committee voted unanimously in favor of a Conservative motion aimed precisely at expanding the ongoing investigation into the issue of foreign interference during the 2019 general election.

The motion was initially intended to shed light on reports, reported by The Globe and Mail last week, that China employed an elaborate strategy during the 2021 election campaign to secure the re-election of a liberal minority led by Justin Trudeau and the to defeat conservative candidates hostile to the Chinese communist regime.

According to the daily, the Chinese Communist Party has “pressured its consulates to develop strategies to use Chinese parishioners and associations for political purposes within Canadian society.”

In their application, the Conservative MPs had already asked for Katie Telford to be summoned. Justin Trudeau and the former Secretary of State would also have been summoned.

Bloc Québécois Marie-Hélène Gaudreau then offered her support, but Ms Telford’s and Mr Trudeau’s subpoenas were eventually withdrawn after an amendment proposed by Liberal Greg Fergus was accepted. The Conservatives’ demand for documents from various departments on foreign interference was also dropped.

On Saturday, La Presse reported that China has mastered the art of insidious interference in Canada’s elections and that it will be almost impossible to counter any form of Beijing interference in the next federal election in the country⁠ 1 according to a former Conservative MP from British Columbia .

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau previously assured that Canadian voters were the only ones who would determine the outcome of the last election in 2021.

“Among other things, China is trying to interfere in our democratic processes. […] We have been aware of this for years in Canada and around the world. And that’s why our security and intelligence services are working hard to counter that influence on a regular basis,” he argued last week, albeit shortly after worrying about certain “inaccuracies” in allegations of Chinese interference.

With Joël-Denis Bellavance, La Presse