Austria will not accept illegal migrants turned away at the German border, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said on Monday after Berlin announced its intention to reinstate controls at all internal EU borders.
The Austrian minister told German tabloid newspaper Bild that under no circumstances would Vienna entertain receipt of migrants refused entry into Germany, warning that any plans to turn migrants away at the border would be unlawful under the current arrangements.
“Austria will not accept people who are rejected from Germany. There is no wiggle room. That is current law,” Karner told the newspaper.
He was responding to the announcement of border reinforcements from Berlin, with its left-wing government reinstating controls with other EU member states for six months from Sept. 16 — effectively suspending the passport-free Schengen zone.
Germany’s federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the move would “strengthen internal security” and continue what she called the government’s “hard line against irregular migration.”
The announcement comes just two weeks before state elections in Brandenburg where immigration is a poll-topping concern for the electorate.
However, the plan is fraught with legal difficulties after Faeser claimed to have designed a scheme that would enable German authorities to reject migrants directly at the border.
Such a move can only be implemented with the agreement of neighboring nations to take back rejected individuals, and Austria was the first off the blocks to unequivocally reject any such proposal.
“I have instructed the Federal Police Director not to carry out any handovers,” Karner said.
On Monday, the German government claimed to have turned back more than 30,000 migrants attempting to enter the country since October 2023, with neighbors Poland, Czechia, and Switzerland reportedly happy to oblige.
Vienna’s defiance and its insistence on adhering to existing EU laws sets up a potential clash with Berlin, and the European Commission will be expected to pick a side.
