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Austrian minister claims too few denied asylum seekers left for home

Xinhua, October 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

Austrian Defence Minister Hans Peter Doskozil said up to 90 percent of denied asylum applications in his country cannot be followed through due to a lack of re-admission agreements with applicants' countries of origin.

"It is unacceptable that countries like Morocco or Afghanistan do not take their citizens back," he told the Austria Press Agency in an interview on Wednesday.

The minster called for a joint European solution to tackle the problem, and urged the European Union(EU) to finalize repatriation agreements. According to him, he had already called for a repatriation summit weeks ago to find a common EU solution.

In response, the Interior Ministry said it could not support the claims from Doskozil, noting that of about 11,500 denied asylum applications in the first nine months of the year, nearly 8,000 people have left the country.

This leaves a discrepancy of only about 30 percent, a spokesperson stated, though acknowledging the repatriations is "a challenge." Enditem