Conservative Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said during a joint press statement with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that Austria “fully supports the British path”.

Under the controversial scheme set up by non-EU Britain, irregular arrivals will be denied the right to request asylum in the UK and sent instead to Rwanda.

Nehammer spoke of the UK being a “pioneer” for the European Union with its “Rwanda model”, broadcaster ORF reported. Austria and the UK are “strategic partners when it comes to ensuring that asylum procedures take place in safe third countries”, said the Chancellor. 

He added that the British model is a way to tackle organised crime and end the “dying in the Mediterranean”. However, there is still a long way to go within the EU, according to the Chancellor. 

During the brief press conference, Sunak underscored the shared commitment to addressing illegal migration, calling it ‘one of the defining issues of our time’.

Joint letter by EU leaders

PM Sunak, during his visit to Vienna, commended a joint letter by Austria and 14 other EU countries. The letter aims to propose ‘new ideas’ for handling undocumented migrants, including the possibility of sending some to third countries.

The letter to the European Commission comes ahead of June’s European Union elections in which far-right anti-immigration parties are forecast to make gains and as the bloc juggles how to implement a recently adopted overhaul of its asylum rules.

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Sunak expressed his enthusiasm about the proactive stance of the 15 countries, stating his intention to continue building alliances in the fight against irregular migration.

“We have to pursue new ideas, new solutions and deterrents, removals to safe third countries like the UK’s pioneering Rwanda scheme,” Sunak said.

The 15 countries said in their letter that they wanted the EU to toughen its asylum and migration pact.

They said it should be easier to send asylum seekers to third countries while their requests for protection are assessed.

Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania signed the letter, but not EU heavyweights France, Germany and Spain.

According to the bloc’s asylum agency, asylum applications in the EU surged to over one million last year, a seven-year high. Syrians and Afghans were the top groups seeking protection.

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While Germany received nearly one-third of asylum bids, Cyprus, Austria, and Greece had the highest proportion in relation to their populations.

Austria’s anti-immigrant, far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) leads in polls to Nehammer’s conservative People’s Party (OeVP).