Balance of border

5037 refugees apprehended in one year

Refugees on Friday morning in Deutschkreutz.

(Bild: Schulter Christian)

The influx of refugees this year was limited compared to previous years. Politically, however, illegal migration remains a "hot" issue - keyword "high costs of imprisoned smugglers".

Burgenland is the island of Lampedusa in Central Europe!" Quotes like this from a police insider at the annual review at the end of December 2023 have long since fallen silent. More than 29,800 arrivals had been registered in the 12 months prior to that. At peak times, 300 refugees a day crossed the border from Hungary into Austria. The situation has long since calmed down.

Manageable numbers
Last week, exactly 193 migrants were stranded in Burgenland. "This means that 5037 refugees have been registered in the easternmost province this year. This order of magnitude is manageable," according to the responsible authorities. However, this opinion is not shared by everyone in the population. On Friday morning, almost 30 refugees once again marched through the middle of the border town of Deutschkreutz.

"Enough is enough"
"What are we going to do with them?" asks former mayor Manfred Kölly, who is now standing in the regional elections as LBL leader for the Hausverstand list: "Enough is enough! And let's not forget family reunification."

38 smugglers were arrested this year. SPÖ club chairman Roland Fürst intervenes. Almost 1,500 people smugglers have been arrested in Austria since 2022, almost 700 of them in Burgenland alone. "These henchmen of organized crime commit serious crimes and usually serve long prison sentences in our prisons.

Traffickers make up around 15 percent of all prisoners. This massively overburdens our system.

SPÖ-Klubobmann Roland Fürst

Criticism of equal treatment
In addition, the majority of these criminals remain in Austria after serving their sentences and are not deported, which nobody understands," criticizes Fürst. The costs run into the millions. A tricky side note: "While the population has to put up with longer waiting times for surgery appointments or medical treatment in some cases, the traffickers are treated the same, and all with taxpayers' money," denounces Fürst.

From a Europe-wide perspective, the basic problem is hardly changing. Although the influx of refugees along the route via Burgenland has been drastically curbed, the influx has not dried up. The gangs of smugglers are switching to other secret routes. A high-ranking law enforcement official: "Regardless of the route, roughly one million refugees enter the EU every year."