(Reuters) Austria’s potential forced deportation of Syrian refugees back to their changed homeland can only occur when it is safe, Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told Reuters, adding that it was impossible to predict timings.
Schallenberg was clarifying his government’s position after conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer pounced on the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad to call for a reassessment of security in Syria so as to enable the sending back of refugees.
As with many centrist parties in Europe, Nehammer’s People’s Party (OVP) is under pressure from the far right, which like him takes a hard line on immigration. The eurosceptic, Russia-friendly Freedom Party (FPO) won September’s parliamentary election but Nehammer has been tasked with forming a government.
