Faced with increasing numbers of Indian migrants, Austria has agreed to cooperate more closely on migration with India, which will take back citizens in exchange for legal avenues of labour market integration.
Migration continues to top the Austrian political agenda as the conservatives (ÖVP) gear up for the Lower Austria elections on 29 January. In 2022, the country registered more than 100,000 non-Ukrainian asylum seekers, 18,000 of which were Indian nationals.
“The problem is not migration, but illegal immigration,” said Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg on Monday. “Tens of thousands of Indians living in Austria are enriching our society,” he added, speaking alongside his Indian counterpart.
The agreement is designed to foster closer cooperation and help funnel skilled Indian migrants into Austria. To that end, young people will receive access to student exchanges and a working holiday programme. Additionally, Austria committed to giving out 800 work visa cards annually.
In exchange, India is expected to aid in the return of illegal asylum seekers, as their chance of receiving asylum in Austria is considered near zero.
But the association for asylum coordination referred to the agreement as “showmanship,” given that the agreement solved problems that didn’t exist to begin with.
Despite the 18,000 requests for asylum in Austria, most move on to other EU countries, Lukas Gahleitner-Gertz, spokesman for the asylum coordination association, told ORF. Of some 200 Indian asylum seekers that had their application denied in the first three quarters of 2022, 142 voluntarily returned to the country.
Instead, it seems as if the “issue” was fixed by leaning on Serbia, which had a no-visa policy for India. A majority of Indian asylum seekers are thought to have travelled via Belgrade. This route is now shut.
“We have pressured our Serbian friends to align their visa liberalisation policy, which they have now done,” Schallenberg stressed. Since Sunday, Indians now require visas to travel to Serbia.
(Nikolaus J. Kurmayer | EURACTIV.de)
Source: euractiv.com
