Austria is set to bar asylum-seekers from taking up vacant training spaces while their claims are still being assessed. It marks the latest in a spate of restrictions placed on migrants by the right-wing government.
Asylum-seekers in Austria will no longer be able to apply for apprenticeship schemes, as part of a draft regulation presented by the government on Monday.
The legislation actually aims to fill vacant training places and apprenticeships, which will be open to laborers from third countries but not to asylum-seekers whose claims are being assessed, government spokesman Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal said.
The new law would overturn a 2012 policy introduced by the then-government, led by the Social Democrats (SPÖ), aimed at integrating refugees.
Austria’s current ruling coalition, made up of Chancellor Christian Kurz’s conservative People’s Party (ÖVP) and the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), was elected last year on an anti-immigration platform. Since then, it has sought to crack down on immigration while also restricting the rights of those already in country.
Kurz’s government has already restricted aid for refugees and reduced funding for several integration initiatives, such as German lessons. Interior Minister Herbert Kickl, an FPÖ hard-liner, has also made clear that his ministry has made the expulsion of rejected asylum seekers a priority.
Source: DW
