(AFP) Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen used an interview published on Saturday to criticise proposals put forward by the government to make it impossible to claim asylum on European soil.
“Whoever comes to our country and applies for asylum should be able to do so,” Van der Bellen said in an interview with the Oesterreich newspaper, adding that those facing persecution had a right to protection under the Geneva Convention.
Austria’s conservative-far right government is using its current presidency of the EU to put forward its own hardline positions on migration and asylum policy, and has formed a controversial “axis of the willing” with like-minded ministers in Berlin and Rome on the issue.
