Austria’s new daily cap on asylum seekers came into effect yesterday, in a move that the European Commission has described as “plainly incompatible” with EU laws
Starting at 8am, a maximum of 80 migrants per day are being allowed to claim asylum in the country, police said.
In addition, Vienna is limiting the daily number of people transiting Austria to seek asylum in a neighboring country to 3,200.
Photo: Reuters
Once the quotas have been reached, “the borders will be closed,” police spokesman Fritz Grundnig said, adding that due to bad weather, no migrant had arrived at the Austrian-Slovenian frontier since Thursday afternoon.
Vienna’s measures — announced earlier this week along with tougher controls at 12 checkpoints along its southern borders — drew an angry reaction from the EU on Thursday as European leaders struggled to end their fragmented approach to managing Europe’s biggest refugee emergency since World War II.
“Such a policy would be plainly incompatible with Austria’s obligations under European and international law,” European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos said in a letter to Austria’s Minister of the Interior Johanna Mikl-Leitner.
“Austria has a legal obligation to accept any asylum application that is made on its territory or at its border,” he said.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker also criticized the proposal.
“As far as Austria is concerned I have to say I do not like this decision, we are questioning whether it is within European law, and we will have a friendly discussion,” Juncker said.
However, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said there “will be no lifting of the decision.”
“Last year, we had around 6,000 more asylum applications than Italy. We have had a lot more than asylum seekers than France. And anyone who has ever looked at a map knows that, for example, those two countries are larger than Austria and also have more inhabitants,” he said.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he understood the reaction of countries under stress like Austria, but he warned that the end result could be “the bunching up of great amounts of people in difficult circumstances in northern Greece.”
Greece has been overwhelmed by the entry of about 850,000 people last year, mostly from Turkey. Thousands are still entering every week. The Greek coast guard has been swamped, and the country has barely 10,000 places to shelter those arriving.
The European Commission has given Greece three months to restore order on its borders, but few believe Athens will be able to meet the deadline. The commission fears that countries on the main migrant route north are working to close Macedonia’s border with Greece.
“If Greece and Turkey do not dramatically decrease the number of migrants coming to the EU in the next few weeks, then talk about closing the borders of Central Europe and securing the borders of the Western Balkans will become a new reality,” Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said.
However, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that the EU needed to “remain united and show solidarity.”
“Europe cannot be rules for some and al la carte for others,” he said.
In calling a summit with Turkey in just a few weeks, Europe’s leaders are also looking at ways to persuade it to deliver on its pledge to crack down on migrants trying to cross into Greece.
The EU has offered Ankara 3 billion euros (US$3.33 billion) for the more than 2 million Syrian refugees on its territory, as well as easing visa rules for Turks and the fast-tracking of its EU membership process.
Vienna says that its new measures are necessary because the German-backed EU plan for Turkey is not yet working, and has urged other countries on the Balkans route into Europe to follow suit.
In response, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia have also tightened their borders.
Last year, more than 1 million people reached Europe’s shores — nearly half of them Syrians fleeing a civil war that has claimed more than 260,000 lives.
The vast majority enter the EU through Italy and Greece, where they should register, but poor controls mean most are able to continue their journeys to northern Europe.
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