Austria will host UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Thursday to learn about her country’s experience outsourcing asylum applications to third countries.
Austria has been pushing to outsource applications for asylum procedures to third states – something the UK is currently doing in a controversial deal with Rwanda.
“Great Britain has great experience when it comes to conducting asylum procedures outside of Europe in the future,” Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told the Austrian Press Agency APA ahead of the meeting.
The idea has recently gained traction, with Germany also considering such an approach.
Since “more and more countries are following the Austrian line”, as the Austrian Interior Ministry pointed out on Tuesday, “Extended third-country cooperation should also be able to be implemented with the asylum and migration pact.”
“We will continue to work consistently to ensure that the EU Commission pushes such asylum procedures outside Europe and thus makes them possible.”
The deal between the UK and Rwanda is particularly interesting for Austria and could serve as a model for the EU, the Interior Ministry added.
Under the new scheme, people whom the UK identifies as irregular migrants or asylum seekers can be deported to Rwanda for processing. If their application is successful, they are granted asylum there and cannot come to the UK.
The plan is considered highly controversial, as the UK Supreme Court is currently reviewing its legality after the Court of Appeal ruled it unlawful.
(Oliver Noyan | Euractiv.de)
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