Now Austria copies Britain: Rwanda-style migrant scheme is going down a storm in Europe
Home Secretary Suella Braverman ahead of a bilateral meeting with Austria's Interior Minister Gerhard Karner in Vienna, Austria
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Austria has adopted a Rwanda-style migrant scheme to deport asylum seekers to a third country.
Suella Braverman signed a migration and security agreement with Vienna on Thursday.
It is the first EU country to agree to work closely with the UK, with Austria deciding to pursue “third country” asylum schemes.
However, Austria’s scheme will allow migrants deported to a third country to return to Austria if their asylum applications are successful.
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This differs from the UK’s £140million Rwanda deportation scheme, where migrants are deported on a one-way ticket.
This can only be stopped if they can show that it would expose them to “serious and irreversible harm”.
Braverman and Rishi Sunak are pushing European countries to reform their international asylum agreements, including the Refugee Convention and European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Vienna’s agreement will likely come as a win for Braverman and Sunak, who have been pushing for reforms in the midst of a worldwide migration crisis.
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Suella Braverman signed a migration and security agreement with Vienna on Thursday
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Austria has also been encouraging the EU to adopt a “third country” scheme, as migrants flood across the Mediterranean and its eastern borders.
Gerhard Karner, Austria’s interior minister, said: “The UK has a lot of experience when it comes to processing asylum applications outside of Europe in the future. That was an important theme in my meeting with the Home Secretary in Vienna because Austria can benefit from this experience.
“We will continue to make a consistent effort for the EU Commission to advance and enable such procedures outside of Europe.”
Vienna has had a strict policy on migration – they have powers to turn back asylum seekers at Austrian borders and can send them to Serbia.
Austria has also been encouraging the EU to adopt a 'third country' deportation scheme
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Braverman said: “The global migration crisis is the challenge of our age, with the UK and the European continent seeing huge movements of people travelling illegally across our borders. This is placing an unprecedented burden on our communities and public services.
"Austria is a close ally in tackling illegal migration, and we have already begun sharing knowledge of our actions and strategies such as third country removals.“This joint statement is a commitment to work more closely together to achieve our aims, and enhance our cooperation on a wide range of security challenges.”
Austria's neighbour, Germany, is considering a Rwanda-style immigration centreis considering a Rwanda-style immigration centre, after it is expected that 300,000 people would have applied for refugee status by the end of the year.
A radical-right wing alternative party is gaining traction after they called for migrants to be processed at offshore centres in Africa.
Support for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is rising, with it consistently polling at more than 20 per cent.
Even Scholz' coalition partners have suggested that asylum centres be built outside of Europe, as many local authorities have said that they can no longer cope with new arrivals.