Numerous tightening of the previous rules are planned. The aim is to curb irregular migration. Of the Austrian MEPs, the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS said they voted for the entire package. The FPÖ MPs were once morest it except for one regulation, the Greens do not support the asylum and migration pact. The vote in the EU Parliament in Brussels had to be interrupted at one point because demonstrators in the hall loudly protested once morest the package.
The package provides for uniform border procedures at the EU’s external borders. In particular, there are plans to deal much more harshly with people from countries that are considered relatively safe. Until a decision is made on their asylum application, people may be accommodated in detention camps under prison-like conditions. Rejected asylum seekers should be able to be deported to safe third countries more easily in the future.
“Solidarity mechanism” regulates distribution
In the future, the distribution of those seeking protection among the EU states will be reorganized using a “solidarity mechanism”: countries that no longer want to accept refugees will have to provide compensatory support, for example in the form of monetary payments. When a particularly large number of refugees arrive in an EU country, the “crisis regulation” should take effect. Migrants might then be held longer.
According to the latest Eurostat data, asylum applications in Europe are increasing: in 2023, a fifth more people applied for asylum in the European Union than in 2022. After a significant decline in 2020 (417,100), the value of first-time applicants has been increasing across the EU for three years in a row, reaching in 2023 almost the peaks of 2015 and 2016 (1,216,900 and 1,166,800) following the war in Syria . Austria recorded the second highest number of initial applications in relation to the population in 2023, but overall there were almost half fewer applications than in 2022.
