Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) has announced the government’s plans to extend internal border checks with Hungary and Slovenia for an additional half year beginning on May 11th, when the current six-month suspension of the Schengen area’s free-travel rules along the same borders is set to expire.
The interior minister made the announcement on Tuesday, April 11th, during an interview with the public broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), saying the continuation of the suspension was absolutely necessary to curtail illegal migration and to keep the Austrian population safe, the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports.
Karner stated that despite the high costs the state incurs due to the internal border checks, Austria is required to keep them in place for safety reasons. “Yes, it costs, but it is necessary for the safety of the Austrian population,” he said, adding: “As long as the EU’s external border protection doesn’t work, we have to invest the money.”
“We will inform the European Commission in the coming days that we will have to extend these border checks,” Karner said, before reminding the broadcaster it is “necessary” to continue the border checks in light of the “high migratory pressure” Austria experienced in 2022, having received over 110,000 asylum applications—the highest percentage increase year over year of any member state.
“In February of this year we had 2,600 asylum applications, while in November last year, there were 12,000 asylum applications … in order to continue on this consistent path, the controls must be continued,” Karner added, underscoring that controls are the reason illegal migration numbers in Austria have declined.
Austria, by extending its Schengen exemption, is following the example of the German and French governments, both of which have had exemptions allowing for internal border checks since the migration crisis of 2015. Germany conducts checks on its border with Austria while France carries them out on its borders with Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain.
Presently, France, Iceland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have Schengen exemptions allowing for internal border controls, with the majority of them set to expire next month.
Between European Union member states that have signed onto the Schengen Agreement, border checks are only intended to exist as an exception and only for a limited period of time. Thus, the EU Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, must be notified accordingly. Exemption periods have a duration of six months.
