The Ministry of the Interior is currently registering fewer detentions of migrants who entered Austria illegally. According to a broadcast on Sunday, a drop of 70 percent had been registered between mid-December and the first days of January. The reason for this is the end of visa-free travel for Indian and Tunisian citizens in Serbia.
With the end of the visa-free regime in Serbia, the people smugglers were deprived of part of their “business base”, it was said. Indians and Tunisians paid between 2,000 and 5,000 euros to be towed from Serbia to Austria. According to the ministry, there were more than 30,000 asylum applications from these two countries in Austria last year.
In addition to the end of visa-free travel, the Ministry of the Interior refers to the intensive police checks, both on Austrian territory and in Hungary, as part of Operation Fox. The most relevant route for Austria remains the Eastern Mediterranean route, which leads to Austria via Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Serbia, Romania and Hungary. Protecting the external borders is therefore essential.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) describes the end of visa-free travel as an “important measure to limit opportunities for organized crime”. “Taking action against the smugglers’ mafia means above all protecting human lives and fighting an inhumane enterprise,” says Karner.
Source: Krone
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