Austria tightens refugee rules

Press, 28 January 1986, Page 16

Austria tightens refugee rules

By

ROLAND PRINZ

FZ, of Association Press, in Vienna

Austria, a traditional gateway to freedom for Soviet bloc refugees, is tightening the rules for people seeking asylum because more of them are coming for economic rather than political reasons. The Interior Minister, Karl Blecha, who oversees Austrian policy on asylum, said other Western countries were making distinctions between money problems and persecution; but unlike others who send back some of the would-be refugees, Austria allows them to stay. This country of 7.5 million people remains the most liberal of all Europe’s “countries of first resort” for refugees. "Austria has in fact remained the only asylum island at a time of growing restrictions that began in Denmark and continued in Switzerland and Sweden,” Mr Blecha said in a recent interview. He said that the Austrian authorities were advising East Europeans who fled to the West for purely economic reasons to

go back before their home countries decided to prosecute them, but no-one was being forcibly repatriated, he said. The number of "economic refugees” has steadily increased over the last few years, Mr Blecha said. In 1982, the year of a great influx from Poland, immigrants recognised as political refugees under the Geneva Convention accounted for 84.5 per cent of the over-all figure of applicants. Under the Geneva Convention, applicants must prove they face persecution in their home countries on political, ethnic, racial, or religious grounds. The share dropped to 65 per cent in 1983, 46 per cent in 1984 and stood at 45 per cent last year, meaning more than half of the petitioners processed failed to qualify as political refugees. The number of asylum-seekers totalled 6724 in 1985, compared to 7208 the year before, said Mr Blecha. Those applying in 1985 included 2333 Czechoslovaks (in

1984, 1981); 1642 (1229) Hungarians; 890 (510) Rumanians; and 510 (158) Yugoslavs. Others came from as far away as East Asia and South America. The Poles, who now need visas to enter Austria, were a fraction of the latest total.

Mr Blecha suggested most Hungarians and Yugoslavs were purely economic refugees and said most were being asked to go home. In 1985 the Government earmarked 402.7 million schillings (about $44.55 million) to care for refugees. The amount was 328.4 million schillings ($27.12 million) this year, an 18.6 per cent drop. However, Karl Radek, the longtime administrator of the main Traiskirchen refugee camp cautioned that money would not be a problem in the final analysis.

“There has been the possibility of a budget addition in the past,” he said in an interview. “Austria has always declared that it pursues a liberal refugee policy, and I cannot imagine that we will abandon this role forthwith.

“There is no other (Western) country bordering three Eastern nations,” Mr Radek said, referring to Austria’s neighbours, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia.

Mr Blecha said of the economic refugees: “Now we tell them, ‘we cannot say whether you will be recognised as a refugee, and the procedure to determine that will take months.’

“We tell them also, ‘if you are not accepted as a convention refugee there is hardly a chance you will get a job, given the tight labour market situation, and, hence, the necessary permit to stay.’ ” The Minister repeated that noone would be turned back or expelled against his will. “If someone wants to stay in any case,” Mr Blecha said, “we tell him he must remain at the Traiskirchen camp, which is not very inviting.” Traiskirchen, a former Army installation south of Vienna, is tightly controlled. People awaiting determination of their status are not allowed to travel freely outside the camp unless they can

prove that they have relatives or friends providing them with board and lodging. Austria would like to pass on more of its immigrants to other countries, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia — the three countries where most of them want to go in the first place. In previous . years, Austria settled 6000 people annually in those three nations alone. In 1985 only 3483 were able to find homes outside Austria because the host countries would not allow them in. “The Americans take a close look at people,” said Mr Blecha. “They don’t take everyone, and they make sure that the strict immigration rules are complied with.”

To illustrate shrinking quotas, he said while the United States used to take 2500 refugees annually, it accepted only 1536 last year.

Canada accommodated 1200 and Australia 539, he said, but added the Austrians were negotiating with Canada for a larger contingent.