Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
The new Austrian government said Wednesday that family reunification procedures for migrants will be immediately halted because the country is no longer able to adequately absorb newcomers.
The measure was temporary and intended to ensure that those migrants who are already in the country can be better integrated, Chancellor Christian Stocker from the conservative Austrian People’s Party said.
“Austria’s capacities are limited, and that is why we have decided to prevent further overloading,” Stocker said. The new measure means that migrants with so-called protected status — who cannot be deported — were no longer allowed to bring family members still living in their home countries to Austria.
The new three-party coalition made up of the People’s Party, the center-left Social Democrats and the liberal Neos has said that curbing migration is one of its top issues and vowed to implement strict new asylum rules.
Official figures show that 7,762 people arrived in Austria last year as part of family reunification procedures for migrants. In 2023, the figure was 9,254. Most new arrivals were minors. Migrants who were still in the asylum process or had received a deportation order were not allowed to bring family members from their countries of origin.
Most recent asylum seekers came from Syria and Afghanistan, the Austrian chancellery said in a statement. Austria has a population of 9 million.
Stocker said the measure was necessary because “the quality of the school system, integration and ultimately the security of our entire systems need to be protected — so that we do not impair their ability to function.”
The government said it had already informed the EU of its new measures. It did not say for how longthe measure would be in effect. “Since last summer, we have succeeded in significantly reducing family reunification,” Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said. “Now we are creating the legal basis to ensure this stop is sustainable.”
Get the Ynetnews app on your smartphone: Google Play: https://bit.ly/4eJ37pE | Apple App Store: https://bit.ly/3ZL7iNv
Governments in Europe have been trying to cut the number of migrants. The clamp-down was a severe turnaround from ten years ago, when countries like Germany and Sweden openly welcomed more than 1 million migrants from war-torn countries such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Many communities and towns in other countries, such as Germany, also said they no longer have the capacity to find shelter or homes for migrants. The EU is trying to keep more migrants from entering its 27-country bloc and move faster to deport those whose asylum procedures are rejected.
On Tuesday, the EU unveiled a new migration proposal that envisions the opening of so-called “return hubs” to be set up in third countries to speed up the deportation for asylum seekers whose requests have been rejected. So far, only 20% of people with deportation orders have been removed from EU territory, according to the European Commission.
The commission has proposed a “European System for Returns” that will set a standard for all 27 members of the bloc and allow national authorities from one country to enforce deportation orders issued by another. Such rules were missing from the EU’s migration and asylum pact that was approved last year.
Concern over immigration in Austria has been fuelled by fallout from recent security incidents linked to Islamist extremism, including a stabbing rampage last month suspected of being carried out by a Syrian asylum seeker that killed a 14-year-old boy.
The government said that in 2023 and 2024, about 18,000 people came to Austria as part of family reunification, including 13,000 school-age children or minors. "Given the number, it's obvious we should act responsibly and temporarily press the stop button," Stocker said.