Austria Plans Further Curbs on Accepting Asylum Requests

Austria plans to further restrict its regulations for granting asylum by setting additional limits on who qualifies for safe haven, the AP reported on Wednesday.

The new restrictions, to take effect from the middle of May 2016, have been unveiled by Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner.

They provide for a more selective processing of asylum applications.  Currently, Austria processes every asylum request. Under the new rules, applications will be accepted only from "those that we have to" — for instance in cases where a person faces threats to safety in a neighboring country that he or she transited,  the AP quoted Johanna Mikl-Leitner as saying.

Austria has received 14,000 asylum requests in 2016, after receiving almost 90,000 in 2015 – equal to more than 1% of its population.

The Austrian government decided in January to cap the number of refugees it wants to accept to 37,500 this year and a total of 127,500 through 2019.