Austria passes tough new asylum laws as attitudes to migrants harden

Austria has passed controversial new laws restricting the right of asylum that would allow authorities to turn away most migrants at the border if a state of emergency is invoked.

The laws, among the toughest European responses to the migrant crisis, come as the country prepares to build further fences along its borders, and amid public anger over a shocking child rape case involving an Iraqi migrant.

The legislation, passed Wednesday, allows Austria’s government to declare a state of emergency over migration if it deems the country lacks the capacity to receive, house and integrate the number of people who want to enter, said Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck.

He said it would give authorities sweeping powers to block migrants from entering if they deem the country from which they are directly entering – not their homeland – is safe.

War forced half of all Syrians from their home – here’s where they went

Amnesty: New laws breach international obligations

Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty International’s deputy director for Europe and Central Asia, said the laws were “a glaring attempt to keep people out of Austria and its asylum system.”

The measures would breach its obligations under international law by preventing access to protection for thousands of refugees, Amnesty said.

Addressing Austria’s Parliament on Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was “concerned that European countries are now adopting increasingly restrictive immigration and refugee policies.”

“Such policies and measures negatively affect the obligations of member states under international humanitarian law and European law,” he said.

“I welcome the open discussions in Europe – including in Austria – on integration. But I am alarmed again about growing xenophobia here and beyond. All of Europe’s leaders should live up to the principles that have guided this continent.”

But Grundboeck, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said Austria’s measures were necessary as vast numbers of refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa continue to make their way along the so-called Balkan route through southeastern European countries to prosperous “destination countries” in the north.

“What we cannot accept is that migrants just transit through countries without being registered and accommodated,” he said.

Austria has been primarily a transit point into Germany, the main destination country for migrants.

But it also received more than 88,000 asylum applications last year, he said.

New border fences proposed

The laws were passed as Austrian authorities announced they were making preparations to be able to erect a 370-meter (404-yard) fence at the Brenner Pass on the border with Italy as well as fences at two border crossings to Hungary.

Grundboeck said the preparations were in place so that authorities would be able to erect the fences if migrant flows required it.

A fence was recently erected along the Spielfeld border crossing between Austria and Slovenia, he said.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi condemned the news of the potential closure of the Brenner Pass, saying that “the possibility of closing the Brenner is blatantly against the European rules, as well as against history, against logic and against the future.”