Europe should have upper limit on asylum intake: Austrian official

Austrian Defense Minister Hans Peter Doskozil has called for a Europe-wide upper limit on the intake of asylum seekers as part of his new plan to cope with the refugee crisis.

The words came when the official had in an interview with Kurier newspaper for its Thursday edition.

According to Doskozil's plan, it aims at hindering illegal migration and allowing for the legal entry of persons entitled to asylum.

No asylum applications should be able to be made on European soil in future. Instead, processing centres should be established outside Europe, such as in African nations, where trained experts can quickly determine whether a person could obtain asylum or not.

This process should be based on four principles: the rule of law, security and protection, fairness, and transparency, and should also follow European Union standards and human rights principles.

It could also have a lasting impact on the "deadly business" of human trafficking, he noted.

Should a person be deemed to be in need of protection, they should be provided with safe transfer to an EU country, the official said.

This in turn would require a fixed upper limit on the asylum seeker intake for each EU member, and the capacities of each are also taken into consideration, the minister added. Endit