Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg considers today’s first joint online meeting of the EU Foreign and Interior ministers on migration an important step towards developing migration partnerships with countries of origin as well as with transit countries for migrants coming to Europe. “The external and internal aspects of European migration policy must complement each other perfectly, otherwise the whole mechanism gets stuck,” Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said at the Joint Council which was also attended by Interior Minister Karl Nehammer. He added that the important issue of repatriating people who have not been granted asylum in the EU was an Achilles’ heel.
The EU must get much better at enforcing the return of migrants,
said Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg.
Seven out of ten people who have not been granted asylum in the EU remain in Europe regardless, because they cannot be returned to their countries of origin. According to Alexander Schallenberg, “this undermines the credibility of the entire European asylum system.”
Alexander Schallenberg said the EU must use both pressure and cooperation to enforce the repatriation of migrants, commenting that
We must leave no stone unturned to achieve tailor-made migration agreements with third countries, from development aid, trade and investment to visa policy.
At the same time, he emphasised that the EU had to continue combating the root causes of flight, and to intensify efforts for the sustainable integration of refugees in host countries in the region. Against the backdrop of the tenth anniversary of the civil war in Syria, Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg underlined Austria’s continuous humanitarian commitment. He noted that Austria would provide more than 15 million euros for aid on the ground in 2021, both to people in Syria and to Syrian refugees and their host communities in neighbouring countries.
