Asylum: Registration Office Schattendorf Facing Closure

According to the Ministry of the Interior, illegal migration to Austria has been "reduced to nearly zero" in recent years, and asylum police in Burgenland will therefore be deployed in border protection in the future. "We are saving on asylum and investing in security," explained Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) on Thursday. Due to the changed situation, the asylum registration center in Schattendorf can thus be dissolved.

In recent years, extensive measures have been taken to protect the EU's external border, with investments in technical infrastructure and personnel. Austria has also implemented "Operation Fox" on Hungarian soil.

Asylum Registration Center Schattendorf Will Be Dissolved

The number of apprehensions of refugees at the border in Burgenland has been "reduced to nearly zero." While over 1,900 apprehensions were recorded in calendar week 46 in 2022, there were 34 in the same period in 2025, according to the release.

The office for the registration of asylum seekers in Schattendorf (District of Mattersburg), which has existed since 2016, will therefore be dissolved at the end of the month. The 23 police officers deployed there will primarily be used for border protection or reassigned to other offices, as stated in response to an APA inquiry. The police station in Schattendorf is not affected by this structural measure.

FPÖ Warns of "False Sense of Security"

Concerns about the closure in Schattendorf were expressed by the FPÖ. Although there is currently a decline in illegal migration, the regional parliament member Christian Ries warned in a statement against a "false sense of security." The development is volatile and not a basis for structural cuts, said Ries.

"Illegal migration has been massively pushed back in the last two years. This creates the opportunity to deploy additional police officers more intensively for border protection and controls, with the clear goal of reducing illegal migration to zero. We will and must continue to relieve the population," said Karner.

Call for End of Assistance Deployment

The Green Party's defense spokesperson in the National Council, David Stögmüller, called in this context for an end to the military assistance deployment at the border. "If the Minister of the Interior proudly announces that no more people fleeing war are standing at our border, then he must also draw the logical conclusion. The military assistance deployment at the border must finally be ended. There is simply no longer any reason to use soldiers for police tasks," said Stögmüller in a statement. He pointed to the costs of the "now ten-year-long assistance deployment," as 409 million euros have been spent on it since 2015.

Also for the Burgenland Green Party's regional parliamentary club chairman Wolfgang Spitzmüller - in a coalition with the SPÖ - the "question of the necessity of this deployment" arises. The long deployment is an organizational burden for the military and ties up resources needed for core tasks. "It is important to deploy personnel where there is a clear mandate," said Spitzmüller in response to an APA inquiry. "If the situation at the border has calmed down as the numbers show, then everything speaks for adjusting and gradually ending the assistance deployment."

(APA/Red)

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