This was announced by department head Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) in a press conference. 300 priority actions are planned, called “abuse grid squares”, on different levels. Up to 1,400 police officers from the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum to the customs investigation and financial police are said to be on duty at the same time.
Karner explained that it was originally assumed that the war in Ukraine would tend to lead to a decrease in the number of refugees from other regions. But the opposite is the case. In the first quarter, more than 11,000 asylum applications were made in Austria, which corresponds to an increase of 115 percent. Many people smugglers apparently tried to use the supposedly lax controls through free travel for Ukrainians for their own purposes.
This creates the need to draw clear boundaries, as the Interior Minister emphasized. There is help for those who need it, but they react consistently when the system threatens to be exploited. Karner also recalled that among the top 5 nations with the countries of origin India, Turkey and Tunisia were three countries whose citizens were only granted asylum in very rare cases.
Reinforced controls at the Hungarian border
They want to start at a wide variety of levels, with the fight against human traffickers being a priority. There should be more controls in the high-level road network, where most arrests are made in the border area with Hungary, as well as on trains. For this purpose, one relies on the means of veil manhunt. So far more smugglers have been seized this year than in 2021. There were 400 in the year as a whole, and this year 123 in the first three months.
But there should also be a focus on the red light area and on undeclared work. You also want to take a closer look at whether there is abuse of social benefits. In any case, a lot of work is already being done with data sets, and certainly also with results. For example, 200,000 euros in basic supplies were reclaimed in the first quarter. Anomalies are, for example, if three cars are registered for an asylum seeker who is supposed to be in need. The controls in the area of basic services are to be doubled in May compared to March.
The Minister of the Interior did not want to put a figure on exactly how long the action will last and when it would be a success for him.
Source: Nachrichten
