He was “shocked” that the commission was “constantly sending the wrong messages,” said Nehammer in a statement sent to the APA on Sunday.
“I can only strongly condemn proposals to bring all people from Afghanistan to Europe now,” said Nehammer. The aim could not be to bring “thousands upon thousands” of Afghans to Europe. This is not a solution and a “very short-sighted and ideologically misguided policy” that is dangerous for Europe. Protection for the refugees must be guaranteed in the region.
However, this is exactly what the Swedish EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson demanded on Saturday. One must support the Afghans within the country and in the neighboring countries of the region, said Johansson of the “Welt am Sonntag”. At the same time, the Swedish politician called on all EU countries to take in more refugees from Afghanistan through the resettlement program of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The EU Commission is ready to coordinate such programs and provide additional financial aid, confirmed EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her visit to an initial reception center for Afghan local EU workers who fled the Taliban in Spain on Saturday. Von der Leyen also made it clear that the people in Afghanistan also had to continue to be helped.
Regarding possible refugee movements from Afghanistan, Johansson said that not so many people have moved to Europe so far, “but the situation is now changing rapidly and we have to be prepared for different scenarios”.
Similar to Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP), Nehammer referred to the already “large Afghan community” in Austria. Of the total of around 44,000 Afghans in this country, many have no school education and are “difficult to integrate despite great efforts,” which is also shown by the crime statistics. Help on the ground is currently the “only right and sensible thing that the EU Commission should focus on now,” he said.
