Austria cap on refugees against European law: EU
The top refugee and immigration official at the European Union has warned that Austria’s imminent plan for implementing a daily cap on the number of refugees would be against the continental body’s law.
“What the Austrians have decided is not according to European laws,” EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said on Thursday, adding that "there are some principles and laws that all countries must respect and apply.”
Austria has announced that it will only allow 3,200 people a day from a flow of refugees entering the country. Vienna is also to limit the number of asylum claims at 80 a day from Friday.
Avramopoulos admitted that Austria, a major corridor for refugees moving from Turkey via Greece and the Balkans to Germany, is “under huge pressure,” and “overwhelmed.”
The EU official said, however, that he would send the Austrian government a letter “telling them that what they decided to do is not compatible to the European legislation. The Austrians are obliged to accept asylum applications without putting a cap."
Nearly 700,000 refugees, most of them people escaping war and poverty in the Middle East and other conflict zones, entered Austria last year with the majority trying to head further north to Germany. Around 90,000 refugees also applied for asylum in Austria in 2015.
Avramopoulos has also urged Austria's Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner to reconsider the daily cap on the number of refugees.
Mikl-Leitner, however, said Thursday that the restrictions on entries and asylum claims will be implemented as of Friday as planned.
The EU is facing its worst refugee crisis in decades, with many blaming the lax policies by major EU powers vis-à-vis conflicts in Syria and elsewhere to blame for the unprecedented exodus.
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