"No Mass Deportations," but Karner Wants More Deportations to Syria

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) stands by the deportation of the first Syrian from Austria to his homeland since the refugee wave of 2015/16 and has announced further deportations of Syrians who have committed crimes to Syria in individual cases. There will be "no mass deportations," but "criminals and threats must be consistently deported," Karner said on Monday in Vienna.

Interior Minister Announces Further Individual Deportations to Syria

The 32-year-old Syrian was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2018 for terrorist association, among other charges. Officially, Austria was the first EU country in early July to take such action against a criminal from Syria. The change of power in Damascus from the decades-long police and intelligence regime to the current Islamist-led transitional government, which has relatively pacified the civil war-torn country, opened the door to this. Karner, against the backdrop of planned deportations, visited the new rulers together with his former German counterpart Nancy Faeser.

According to the Interior Ministry, the deported Syrian was handed over to the Syrian authorities. Since then, despite attempts to contact him, there has been no trace of the man, said Sebastian Frik from the Deserters and Refugees Counseling to the Ö1 "Morning Journal" on Saturday. He is likely to have been taken into custody. Karner did not want to comment on individual cases on Monday. However, he assumes that authorities and courts in Austria have acted correctly. Therefore, he remains committed to further deportations.

Visit from Belgium to Karner

The Interior Minister spoke after a working meeting with his Belgian counterpart Anneleen van Bossuyt. According to her, the deportation of Syrians is currently being discussed in Belgium. She made her own opinion clear with the words: "There is no place for illegal criminals in our societies." There is a responsibility for the "safety of our citizens," she emphasized. Van Bossuyt, however, wants the issue to be resolved at the EU level.

The visit from Belgium was generally aimed at coordinating before the EU Interior Ministers' Council next week in Copenhagen. Together with EU partners like Belgium, Karner wants to enforce a "strict, tough course" in asylum policy and the implementation of the EU migration pact under the current Danish presidency, as he said. For him, alongside the repatriation of Syrians and Afghans - "Similar nations burden our systems" - two points are in the foreground: even better securing of the EU's external borders and a common EU canon of safe third countries.

(APA/Red)

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