Juridisk Institut

Since the so-called refugee crisis in 2015, the EU has increasingly relied on deterrence and isolation at the external borders. As early as 2016, Austria enshrined in its national asylum law the possibility of turning away those seeking protection at the border. In view of the rising number of asylum applications and the open power struggle at the EU's external border with Belarus, it is to be feared that national political interest in closing the border will continue to grow. This article presents the so-called emergency asylum regulation and explains why the Austrian government should better not make use of it in the future.