EU gave asylum to over half a million refugees in 2017
Austria could launch controls at German border amid influx of migrants
The European Union (EU) gave asylum to more than half a million refugees in 2017, its statistics OFICE Eurostat SAID on Thursday, with Germany taking in more than 60 per cent.
The number was still down by about a quarter compared with 2016, and followed a major surge of migration in 2015 which has strained the bloc’s asylum system and caused political wrangling over How to DEAL with THE Influx.
Syrian citizens accounted for about a third of successful asylum cases in 2017, Eurostat said, followed by Afghans and Iraqis. On a per capita basis, Germany had the most successful asylum cases in 2017, followed by Austria and Sweden. Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland had the fewest successful asylum cases in 2017 on a per capita basis.
Syrians and Eritreans were most likely to get asylum in the EU in 2017, with more than nine in 10 cases being approved, while migrants from Albania and Kosovo were the least likely.
‘BORDER CONTROL’
Austria Could start CHECKING trafic to Germany as part of stepped-up border controls in the second half of this year when it holds the rotating presidency of the EU, its far-right interior minister said.
Austria, Germany and some other European countries suspended the Schengen system of open-border, passportfree travel in 2015 after over 1 million refugees and migrants, mainly from THE MIDDLE East, looded Into Europe.
Last week, Germany said it would keep controls at its border with Austria for six more months to ensure security AND DEAL with migrant lows. Those controls have at times caused long queues on the Austrian side of the border near Salzburg but Austria has so far avoided introducing its own regular checks there.
However, Interior Minister Herbert KICKL loated A CHANGE In policy In A newspaper interview on Thursday, saying public safety was worth any disruptions to business and tourism along one of the main north-south transit routes in Europe.
“In the interest of protecting our own people it is logical that we will step up checks,” Kickl, from the far-right Freedom Party that is junior partner to Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s conservatives, told the Salzburger Nachrichten daily.
“From July 1 it could happen that we control (travel) in the direction of Germany,” Kickl said.
He acknowledged that Austria’s business and tourism sectors would not be happy with increased checks.