If Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) has his way, social assistance must be “adjusted and reduced at European level”. Because one should not send economic incentives to migrants, he said in an interview. In it he spoke again in favor of deportations to Afghanistan and Syria. And this year.
“Why not bring the Taliban back to Afghanistan?” asked Karner in an interview with the German “Bild am Sonntag”. “We need to talk openly and honestly about how to bring people back to Syria, to certain regions like Damascus,” Karner demanded. “Of course not children and women”, but criminals and dangerous people. Deportations to Afghanistan and to the civil war country of Syria are currently not possible due to massive human rights violations.
Thousands of suspects from Afghanistan and Syria
When asked about the number of threats and the Taliban in Austria, the Interior Ministry replied to the APA with reference to the crime statistics for 2022. According to it, there were 488,949 reports across Austria in the previous year and, with a clear increase of 52.2 percent, 6,504 suspects from Syria and 5,398 suspects from Afghanistan have been traced. No information was given about the number of Taliban from Afghanistan and threats from Syria. A spokesperson emphasized: “Among the high-risk persons in Austria, there are also people from these countries who are at risk in terrorism-related phenomena and are therefore under observation by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.”
‘European asylum system is broken’
In the “Bild” interview, Karner again argued for asylum procedures outside Europe. “We need to take away the business base for the smugglers,” the interior minister said. “I insist that the possibility, as Denmark has already done, to carry out asylum procedures in safe third countries, should also be made possible for other European countries.” Then “deaths in the Mediterranean could be prevented,” he said. “The European asylum system is now so broken that we have to rebuild it. We have to step on the asylum brake.”
Denmark plays a special role in EU migration policy. This allows the Nordic country, for example, to hold talks with Rwanda about setting up asylum seekers centers. However, this plan is not currently being implemented.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
