The Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (34) just reported against migrants: “We have massive problems with many from other cultures,” said Kurz. The Austrian government is now making it clear: it does not see the situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban came to power as a reason to take in more refugees. “Illegal migration, which runs through a dozen safe countries, and where migrants simply choose a destination country, must be stopped,” said Interior Minister Karl Nehammer (48) of “Welt” before consultations with the EU interior ministers on Wednesday. “There is no reason why an Afghan should come to Austria now.” Rather, what is needed are Afghanistan’s neighboring countries to ensure protection and aid in the region.
After their rapid conquest, the Taliban effectively took power in Afghanistan on Sunday, which is why many people fear a return to the Islamists’ earlier reign of terror. Nehammer pointed out that Austria had granted protection to more than 130,000 people in the past five years, making it third among the EU member states. “Since then, just under 35,000 people have come from Afghanistan – the majority of them are young men who are often poorly educated or illiterate and pose a major challenge to the integration and social system,” said the conservative politician. “That alone shows clearly that the discussion about additional admission cannot be a big topic for Austria.”
He will propose to his EU colleagues to set up deportation centers in the region around Afghanistan in order to circumvent the limits of the European Convention on Human Rights. “Due to the large number of delinquent asylum seekers – especially from Afghanistan – this must be in the interests of the EU states and corresponds to the basic idea of the Geneva Refugee Convention, which also obliges refugees to adhere to the laws of the host country and does not prohibit deportation.” (SDA)