Vienna: The Austrian parliament has adopted one of Europe’s most restrictive
refugee laws, allowing the government to declare a state of emergency if the
number of migrants threatens “national security.” It may also directly reject
refugees at the border.
The toughest-ever bill, passed by 98 to 67 on Wednesday, allows the
Austrian government to declare a state of emergency if the number of migrants
unexpectedly goes up, thereby posing “a
threat to national security.”
Depending on the situation, the state of
emergency could be extended for three more six-month-long terms. Under the new
law, border control officers would also be given the right to refuse entry to
nearly all migrants, with only a few exceptions for those facing safety threats
in a neighboring transit country or those who already have relatives in
Austria.
Some other vulnerable groups like
unaccompanied minors and pregnant women would be kept exempt from the harsh
rule.
The special measures will also oblige
migrants to file their asylum applications directly at the border in
registration centers which are yet to be built, contrary to a previous practice
of letting the refugees into the country. They may be held for up to 120 hours
while their application is being verified.
Wedged
between Europe’s two main refugee routes — the Balkans and Italy, Austria
received around 90,000 asylum requests in 2015, the second-highest in the bloc
on a per capita basis.
Many
brave a short but dangerous sea journey from Turkey to Greece, before trekking
up through the Balkans toward western and northern Europe. More than a million
people, primarily from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, landed in Europe last year,
triggering the continent’s worst migration crisis since the aftermath of World
War II.
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