Austrian Chancellor: EU migration system, border security have failed

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
16 Nov 2022 23:44
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Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer says that "The European migration system has failed, Austria... received over 90,000 applications for asylum. It is too many and it shows that the protection of the EU's external borders is not functioning."

A line of Syrian refugees crossing the border of Hungary and Austria on their way to Germany. Hungary, Central Europe, 6 September 2015 (Photo: Mstyslav Chernov)

Austria should tighten its border security, as the failure of the European Union's migration system has demonstrated deficits in security on the EU's external borders, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on Wednesday.

"The European migration system has failed, Austria... received over 90,000 applications for asylum. It is too many and it shows that the protection of the EU's external borders is not functioning. It is also a security issue for the EU," Nehammer told journalists.

The Austrian government is working on a number of measures to strengthen security in Austria and the EU, Nehammer added.

EU countries are obliged to look for new partners to address illegal immigration because Brussels' proposals on protecting the borders are not efficient, Nehammer added.

"Austria, Serbia and Hungary have created a partnership to fight illegal migration, human trafficking and organized crime. Why is this necessary? Because it is quite obvious that the EU migration system is not working. We have gotten to the point where individual EU states are forced to look for new forms of partnership and cooperation outside of what is possible within the EU," Nehammer said.

The Austrian chancellor also announced a Vienna collaboration with Belgrade to extradite illegal immigrants.

"For the first time ever, we are organizing a project where we will already be extraditing illegal immigrants from Serbia, we have a lot of experience in that," Nehammer said.

In September, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) reported that the number of migrants trying to enter the European Union without a visa or authorization in the first quarter of 2022 has spiked to 2016 highs, adding that the majority of migrants have been from Afghanistan and Syria, two countries ravaged by a Western-waged war that lasted for two decades and more than a decade, respectively.