Austria Reforms Border Protection: This Is What Changes

Austria is reorganizing its border management. Instead of static controls at the borders, the focus will be on the border area in the future. The reason for this is the currently declining number of apprehensions, as Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) explained at a press conference on Friday. Overall, border protection should become "more effective and flexible" as a result. This will likely reduce the number of soldiers at the border. Criticism came from the FPÖ and the Burgenland SPÖ.

Controls in the border area instead of fixed points

This should also be done flexibly and adapted to the situation, emphasized Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner (ÖVP). The assistance mission for support will "definitely be extended," said Tanner: "We will continue to help protect the borders." However, this may be necessary to a lesser extent in the future. "If apprehensions decrease, the number of soldiers will be reduced." This would allow the soldiers who are freed up to "focus again on core tasks." The assistance mission was intended as a "temporary measure" anyway, said the Defense Minister. Currently, 510 soldiers are deployed in Burgenland.

NEOS Secretary General Douglas Hoyos even spoke of a "historic day." With the new regulation, both a "more efficient and stronger fight against traffickers" and "more freedom for the economy and shorter border waiting times" can be achieved. Hoyos praised the "trustful and good discussions" within the government and also between the police and the armed forces. State Secretary Jörg Leichtfried (SPÖ) emphasized that the new border protection meets the criteria of humanity, law, and order. Additionally, with this model, it is possible to "respond more targeted, efficient, and dynamic to changing conditions."

Controls to Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia extended

Border controls to the neighboring countries Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia will be extended for another six months - until June, said Karner. But here too, the controls will be adapted to the new border management. "Here too, we will conduct fewer border point controls, but more border area controls in the future."

The topic of border area controls, according to Karner, essentially encompasses three levels. The first "essential point" is the protection of the EU's external borders. "This is also crucial for the functioning of the asylum pact, which will come into force in the middle of next year." The second level is the so-called preliminary investigation, where Austrian police officers are deployed, for example, as part of Operation Fox in transit countries in the Western Balkans or in Hungary. The third level is the so-called dragnet investigation. This takes place in the hinterland and not just directly at the border, "to be able to specifically take traffickers out of circulation."

The Director General for Public Security, Franz Ruf, highlighted the activities of the border protection unit Puma in this context. In the future, drones, helicopters, or thermal imaging cameras will also be used. Ruf spoke in this context of a "spider web of cameras." By involving all international stakeholders, a real-time situation report is to be created in the future. The result of the analysis will then be the basis for combating illegal migration. This way, resources can be used "targeted, timely, and flexibly," said Ruf.

FPÖ sees "nasty PR trick," SPÖ-Burgenland detects "sham package"

The Freedom Party sees the reorganization of border protection as a "nasty PR trick by the failed ÖVP Interior Minister Karner and the losing traffic light coalition." This is intended to "deceive" the population, criticized the blue security spokesman Gernot Darmann: "14,325 asylum applications, mainly from Afghans and Syrians, this year alone, are the proof in numbers that nothing is going in the right direction." The "only protective wall" is an "immediate asylum stop."

The assessment of the Burgenland SPÖ was by no means more favorable, which had already pushed for the retention of border controls before the presentation. It detects a "sham package at the expense of security in Burgenland" in the new border protection. According to club chairman Roland Fürst, the "weakening of border protection" is due to "budgetary pressure" in the federal government. Even with a slight shift in smuggler routes, Burgenland would again be a "hotspot of illegal migration," he noted in a statement.

For the Upper Austrian governor and VP leader Thomas Stelzer, current data from the EU Commission shows "that the times of reducing internal controls are far from over" as long as effective protection of the EU's external borders is lacking. Stelzer insisted on the "further development of the foreign and border police into a flexibly deployable border protection unit" as stipulated in the government program of the three-party coalition: "Illegal migration is not managed, but it remains a permanent challenge." Therefore, this unit must now be put into service with the "appropriate emphasis and budgetary priority," said Stelzer.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.