Asylum statistics 2024

Austria takes in more “Dublin” refugees

Austria accepted more people under the "Dublin" principle than it deported.

(Bild: BMI)

More refugees come to Austria under the so-called "Dublin procedure" than are transferred to other European countries. This is shown by the asylum statistics for 2024, with many requests coming from Germany in particular. 

While there were just under 1,200 transfers from Austria, a good 1,500 asylum seekers were returned from other countries. The "Dublin procedure" stipulates that the country in which the refugee is first registered is responsible for the procedure.

In the consultations between the domestic authorities and those of other countries, an agreement was reached in 3744 cases that the other country is responsible. The number of actual transfers was significantly lower at 1184. The authorities in Croatia were consulted most frequently, followed by those in Bulgaria, Germany and Italy.

Conflict with Berlin on the horizon
Foreign authorities turned to their Austrian counterparts even more frequently. In 7168 cases, it was assumed that Austria had jurisdiction. The Austrian authorities took the same view in only 3043 cases. In the end, 1511 people came to Austria. The most frequent requests came from Italy, France and, above all, Germany.

There, CDU chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz recently made it clear that he does not want to let it get that far and wants to keep refugees in the countries that are actually responsible by means of consistent entry controls. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) considers the controls to be legitimate, but would not accept "illegal rejections".

Most deportations did not concern "Dublin cases"
A total of 6954 people were forcibly removed from the country last year. This means that the "Dublin cases" (1184) made up a relatively small proportion of these. The largest groups were Syrians, Algerians and Moroccans. By way of comparison, the number of Slovaks deported from the country alone is significantly higher than all "Dublin cases" combined. 1807 people were deported to the neighboring country.