Austrian government moves to tighten asylum rules

Austria’s cabinet, facing record numbers of asylum requests this year, proposed a tough new bill on Tuesday to deter Afghans that the United Nations refugee agency criticized as likely to increase the migrants’ suffering.

Austria’s new law would force most Afghans to wait for three years, rather than one year under current rules, to bring their families to Austria as well as to prove they have an independent source of income, health insurance and a flat.

Rights groups however sharply criticised the proposals, saying that they would make the integration of migrants into Austrian society more hard. The influx of many hundreds of thousands of migrants into the European bloc over this year, is putting extreme pressure on local communities especially in border countries.

The Austrian authorities received 6,580 migrants from the Sentilj centre last night, data from the Maribor police shows.

Many migrants are young adult men who hope to send for family members once they have found asylum in Europe.

The first asylum-seekers left Italy under the relocation plan on October 9, although a few European Union member states such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland still oppose the mandatory quotas.

It was reported that on Monday alone, three trains with refugees arrived at Dobova with 3,200 refugees.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned fighting could break out in the western Balkans, along the main route of migrants trying to reach Europe, if Germany closed its border with Austria.

But Erdogan and other officials have since dampened expectations, in a further sign of the troubled relationship between Ankara and Brussels hindering global cooperation over the migrant crisis.