On Wednesday, Austria’s three-party government decided to temporarily suspend migrant family reunification operations, a legally contentious decision that some claim violates common European refugee legislation.
The proposal will be pushed by parliament as quickly as possible, according to the country’s new three-party coalition, which is made up of the liberal Neos, the center-left Social Democrats, and the center-right People’s Party. According to the new law, migrants with so-called protected status—which prevents them from being deported—can no longer bring family members still in their home countries to Austria.
Official figures show that 7,762 people arrived in Austria last year as part of family reunion procedures for migrants. The number was 9,254 in 2023. The majority of the newcomers were young. According to Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, only 60 applications for family reunification were received in February. This is probably because the majority of Syrian applications have not been handled because of a shift in authority in Damascus.
However, Stocker stated, We will never achieve prophylaxis if we continue to wait for the numbers to be as high as in the past. Chancellor Christian Stocker cited the burden on Austria’s social services as justification for the proposal.
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