Austria reverses refugee policy

– Austria will no longer allow asylum seekers to take up apprenticeships while their claims are being assessed, a policy reversal by the country’s anti-immigration government criticised by the opposition.

The government is working on a new regulation to fill vacant training places with labourers from third world countries, but will no longer open them to asylum-seekers, spokesperson Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal said.

This reverses a 2012 policy to integrate refugees. A conservative coalition has governed Austria since last year, winning votes on an anti-immigration platform. –

Vienna