In 2022, exactly 1005 exit certificates for asylum seekers were successfully issued, while 253 corresponding attempts by the respective countries of origin were negative. Because a large proportion of the asylum seekers continued to travel to other countries, many certificates turned out to be unnecessary. This is evident from a question from the Ministry of the Interior to FPÖ security spokesman Hannes Amesbauer.
The issuance of certificates by the relevant embassy is a condition for sending rejected asylum seekers without a passport back to their country of origin. For example, Pakistan has refused to take back refugees 72 times. In Nigeria this was the case in 55 cases. Such refugees then have a tolerance status in Austria, but cannot work, for example.
Some states do not cooperate with Austria at all – such as Iran, which does the same with the entire EU. There is also no corresponding agreement with, for example, Somalia.
In many cases, Austria is not the target country
Tunisia received the most applications for an exit certificate last year, followed by Pakistan and Morocco. In total there were almost 5200. The large discrepancy with the total number of successfully submitted and negatively assessed applications is due to the fact that many refugees left the country on their own because they did not have Austria as their destination when they were apprehended, especially Indians and Tunisians .
Values as before the Corona crisis
In essence, the statistics show that exit certificates have returned to the values of the time before the great Corona crisis. In 2019 there were more than 5600 applications, in the following years significantly less, in 2020 and 2021 around 4000. The number of rejections has in any case decreased. In 2019 there were still 712, so significantly higher than last year with a comparable number of applications.
In total, there were 12,550 departures in 2022, of which almost two-thirds were voluntary, including returning displaced persons from Ukraine.
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.
