An Austrian politician has not mentioned a number of refugees to accept as a condition for Schengen
X migrants will flood us from Vienna – Austria will bring back Afghans and Syrians we let there, and this is the price of our entry into Schengen by air and water.
There will be a whole wave of refugees, says the favorite New Year’s conspiracy of the opposition, most loudly proclaimed by the leader of “Vazrazhdane” Kostadin Kostadinov.
The magic number 6000 is most often repeated – this was the number of refugees that Austria wants to return to us.
Fake news, cut off the government of Nikolay Denkov and Maria Gabriel. Instead, they gave the number 113 – the number of refugees Austria has returned to us for 2023 under the Dublin Regulation. In fact, compliance with the old agreement from Dublin is Vienna’s condition, we have not signed anything new, as it became clear from the document circulated between Bulgaria, Austria and Romania.
However, which number is more realistic for 2024?
The answer is: neither.
6,000 is not the number of migrants we should take back against lifting the Schengen veto.
It appeared for the first time on 11.XII. in the Austrian “Der Standard”
On this date, the newspaper published a long article entitled “Step by step” in the Schengen area: Why Vienna makes Romanians and Bulgarians wait”. In essence, this text is a Q&A on the topic since Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner first announced that Vienna might concede on air and sea borders.
In the series of questions and answers in “Der Standard” the following paragraph is included:
Question: How has Austria justified its veto so far and what demands is it making?
Answer: Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Interior Minister Karner argued that external border protection was not working and too many migrants were coming to Austria through Bulgaria and Romania. Karner is now calling for Romania to control the Danube border with Bulgaria more tightly so that as few migrants as possible reach Romania. Modernization of the border system on the Bulgarian-Turkish border is also forthcoming. The money for this must come from the European Commission. Third, Austria insists that Bulgaria and Romania create fewer bureaucratic obstacles for the implementation of the Dublin Regulation.
Accordingly, the two countries must ensure that those migrants who were previously registered in Bulgaria and Romania and who then apply for asylum in Austria are actually returned to Bulgaria and Romania. This year, according to the Austrian Ministry of the Interior, this affects almost 2,000 people who have to return to Romania and almost 6,000 people who have to return to Bulgaria. Decisive for Austria is the speed of governance of the two Eastern European countries. Because after six months, the opportunity to return migrants expires.
Yes, the number 6000 does not appear anywhere officially by any Austrian ruler,
but after the publication it took on a life of its own in the Bulgarian Internet. As even on December 30 – the day on which the Schengen deal was finally approved – it was nailed for hours as the front page of the “Epicenter” website.
However, the only words spoken by Gerhard Karner read: “And these two countries must accept refugees, especially from Afghanistan and Syria – these are the clear conditions and the position we have agreed on, including the three countries. The Commission and the Presidency must work on the basis of this position, which is of paramount importance for the preconditions for air Schengen”.
6,000 is also missing from the annex to the decision on our Schengen admission, where 5 points are listed. It only states that Bulgaria and Romania will not limit the number of refugees that Austria returns to them. And they will give an answer to the applications if possible in 3 working days, especially if it is about Afghans and Syrians. The return will take place under the Dublin Regulation and the new rules that will replace it in half a year.
It was according to the Dublin Regulation for last year that Austria requested to return to Bulgaria 193 migrants, for whom there is data that they first passed through our country. The proof is usually either an application for protection filed with us, or at least fingerprints taken during registration in the “Eurotag” system. 113 people were successfully returned for the whole of 2023. In general, Bulgaria accepted a total of 590 migrants returned to us from other EU countries for the whole of last year.
Therefore, there are only guesses as to what the “magic” number 6000 might represent.
“There is no agreed number of refugees to return –
6000 is a conditional number of the so-called persons who have already passed through Bulgaria, have applied for asylum and within the framework of the procedure have left the country and have apparently reached Austria”.
tried to explain on Wednesday morning the head of the State Agency for Refugees Mariana Tosheva in an interview for BNT.
For 2023, in our country there are nearly 16,000 proceedings of persons who have applied for protection, a procedure has begun. But within 6 months, a part of the foreigners left the country, she added a little more clarity later in the day to BNR.
“We have no idea in which direction they went. Some are in Austria and this is known thanks to the “Eurotag” system, in which Bulgaria participates, and we have a commitment to take fingerprints of the persons who have requested protection in Bulgaria.
Interpretations of statistical information have begun in recent days, but in reality the facts show that in 2023 Austria sent Bulgaria a request for readmission of 193 foreigners, of which by the end of the year it returned 113 under the Dublin Regulation. Any other information instills panic and fear”, Tosheva also stated.
In fact, statistics on the implementation of the “Dublin” regulation, according to which EU countries return migrants to each other, show a radically different situation. Austria sends far more illegal migrants to other countries than it has to return. According to Eurostat data for 2022, Vienna received more than 25,000 requests to take back migrants. And she herself has asked to return about 15,000 people to other EU countries.
As Austria is in second place in the entire EU in terms of requests made to it to take back refugees
Italy is in first place with over 32,000 people.
For Bulgaria, the data for 2022 show that we have received about 20,000 requests to take back refugees. And we have sent about 1,000 requests to other countries to return migrants registered there first. As such, these are data on documents exchanged, not on those actually exchanged between migrant countries.
Only two EU countries have more requests to return refugees to others than they receive from them. The champion is Germany with 68,000 requests to others to take in the refugees. France is second with over 44,000. However, let’s look at the extent to which the requests are fulfilled – Germany managed to return only 4,158 migrants, and France only 3,311.
Syrians and a drugged Macedonian spent 15 people in Romania
A drug-addled Macedonian migrant transporter and three Syrian sewers were caught in another attempt to smuggle refugees. The group acted atypically – it trafficked them to Romania, not Serbia, like other similar gangs.
The criminals were revealed after on December 30 of this year border guards near Silistra captured 12 migrants from Syria. They were driven by a drugged Macedonian who tried to escape from the uniformed men. Along with him was a Syrian with the status of a permanent resident in our country, who helped him. The two are in custody on charges of embezzlement, and the Macedonian for driving under the influence of drugs and disobeying the police. Migrants are prosecuted for attempting to cross the border illegally.
While working on the group, the investigators came across data that a day earlier, another wing of the gang had taken 3 Syrians across the border. Therefore, they informed their Romanian colleagues. Thus the foreigners were caught. The Romanians also caught the sewers – two Syrians with the status of permanent residents in our country. One was convicted twice for drugged driving. The other is being investigated for the same crime as well as drug possession.
Most of the migrants were found to have residence documents issued by the Bulgarian authorities. They did not have the right to leave the borders of the Republic of Bulgaria. The investigation into the initiated pre-trial proceedings continues.
2024-01-03 20:00:00
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