A total of 12,900 people had to leave the country last year, 46 percent of them forcibly. At the top there were not refugees, but mainly citizens from Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. In a press conference, Karner nevertheless spoke of a credible, fair and strict asylum policy.
“You can rightly say that last year was the year of deportations,” said Karner, praising his own policy. If someone has forfeited the right to remain in the country, they must also leave it. The Interior Minister emphasized that the focus of the 5,990 forced deportations was on criminal cases. Even though these are mostly EU citizens, he also sees successes in asylum policy. Austria has become unattractive for smugglers.
- Video: Karner’s statement
“The measures are taking effect”
Karner particularly highlighted the 30 bilateral repatriation agreements with other countries, most recently Bulgaria and Romania. Asylum seekers whose country of origin is not considered safe are deported to these. “The measures are taking effect,” emphasized Karner. The deputy director of the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum (BFA), Karoline Preißer, also emphasized the good cooperation. Karner wants to continue to “put pressure” on deportations to countries like Syria and Afghanistan.
The asylum numbers for the past year were also presented once more: there were 59,232 applications last year, 47 percent fewer than in 2022. By far the largest group of asylum applications came from Syrian citizens. The BFA decided in a total of 78,741 cases, 19 percent (14,748) of which were granted asylum, and 8,430 people received temporary protection or a humanitarian right to remain. This compares to 24,391 (31 percent) negative decisions, and there were also 31,172 dismissals of proceedings.
