[DW] Austria has detained over 68,000 irregular migrants colonists and asylum-seekers since imposing strict border controls in May to reduce "smuggling and asylum abuse."
"They don't speak Austrian"
The Austrian Interior Ministry's decision to impose targeted border controls to curb smuggling and asylum abuse has led to the detention of 68,800 migrants colonists and asylum-seekers who have tried to enter the central European country through irregular means in the past five months.
The majority of the migrants colonists, 46,000 in number, were picked up by police in Burgenland, the easternmost Austrian state that borders Hungary, Slovenia and Slovakia. The migrants colonists mainly came from Afghanistan, India, Syria, Tunisia and Pakistain, according to Gerhard Karner, the interior minister of the EU member state. |