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Austria sets limit on 2016 asylum seeker numbers at 37,500

Xinhua, January 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

Austrian federal, state, and local council leaders met to discuss the refugee crisis at a summit here on Wednesday, deciding to set a limit on the intake of asylum seekers at 37,500 for 2016.

This will be tapered down to 35,000 in 2017, followed by 30,000 and then 25,000 in the two years thereafter, which means there will be a limit of 127,500 asylum applications in Austria in the next four years.

This is reflected through the 1.5-percent of population limit the government set on refugees to be accommodated by states and municipalities that will also carry over as a ground rule nationally, which would make up about 127,500 asylum seekers relative to the population of Austria.

Additionally, quick asylum procedures will be introduced for asylum seekers from so-called "safe countries" of origin, while all procedures on the whole will also be sped up.

A renewed focus will again be put on temporary or "timed" asylum, a relatively new development, while the rules for family reunification will be made more difficult and more strictly regulated.

Non-cash benefits will also be increased over cash allowances, and greater action taken against abuses and misuses of the system.

In presenting the new measures on Wednesday, Chancellor Werner Faymann spoke of an "emergency solution" and a "plan B," adding that Austria "could not take in all asylum seekers."

The Social Democrats leader considered the new limits to be a "guidance level," differing somewhat from Vice-Chancellor and People's Party leader Reinhold Mitterlehner who explicitly referred to an "upper limit."

Neither of the two leaders, however, elaborated on what would happen should the given figures be surpassed, though they did say that legal opinion on this issue would be commissioned. Endit