A total of 10,478 people were deported from Austria in the first ten months of this year, accounting for a 25 per cent increase compared to last year’s same period statistics, the figures from Austria’s Interior Ministry reveal.
Of the total number, 5,496 were taken out of the country voluntarily (52 per cent), and 4,982 were forced (48 per cent).
Revealing the number of refugees leaving Austria has increased significantly this year, through a statement, the Ministry of the Interior said that the number of asylum applications decreased by nearly 50 per cent this year.
In 2022, 8,403 people were deported for a period from January until the end of October.
When it comes to forced deportations out of the country, more than 45 per cent of the people deported have a criminal conviction. The Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum (BFA) continues to focus on increasing the number of people being taken out of the country. In the first two weeks of November, numerous individual repatriations and six charter repatriations were carried out.
The Ministry said that this year, ten Dublin charter returns have already been carried out to Bulgaria and seven to Croatia and Romania, respectively.
Based on the statistics provided by the Interior Ministry, in September, there were nearly 19,000 people seeking asylum in basic care, and about 3,200 people entitled to asylum and nearly 10,300 people entitled to subsidiary protection. The Ministry emphasised that the largest group in basic care are displaced people from Ukraine.
Previously, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner and BFA Vice Director Karoline Preißer revealed that in the first half of this year, the number of deportations of asylum seekers in Austria was higher than the number of asylum requests registered.
The figures provided on July 31 also showed that a total of 22,990 asylum requests were recorded in this country in the first half of this year, marking a 30 per cent decline compared to the statistics from the same period last year.
Revealing that 130 police officers are at present on duty to help fight cross-border crime, back then, the Minister considered the second most important measure to help manage this situation efficient and fast asylum procedures.
People from countries like Morocco, Bangladesh or India, who have practically no chance of asylum, go through fast asylum procedures.
The Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum processed 4,360 quick and urgent procedures in the first half of this year.
