Return centers: Karner insists on completion by 2026

Vienna, July 15, 2026 ## At a meeting with German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt in Berlin, Austria's Interior Minister Gerhard Karner reaffirmed that negotiations on return centers for rejected asylum seekers should be concluded by the end of the year. Karner is traveling to Dublin on Thursday for an informal meeting of EU interior ministers. According to both ministers, talks with the German side are progressing well, and the details of the planned facilities are to be finalized in 2026. Deportations to these centers are then set to begin the following year. ## According to Karner, the background to the initiative is the desire to transfer rejected asylum seekers to third countries outside the EU more quickly and in a more orderly manner. The so-called "Group of Implementers" comprises, according to his information, Austria, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Greece. The group is already holding talks with potential partner countries that want to establish so-called "Return Hubs." Karner and Dobrindt also pointed to joint successes at the border. At the Austrian-German border, controls are being carried out flexibly and not according to rigid patterns, in order to offer smugglers no predictability. According to Dobrindt, 595 smugglers have already been caught this year. Karner added that the number of illegal border crossings, which had reached phases of up to 3,500 crossings per week in 2022 and 2023, has since fallen to around five per week. The eastern Austrian border, particularly Burgenland, was and remains especially affected. ## In the migration balance sheet, Karner emphasized that around 7,000 removals from the country were recorded in the first half of the year, while at the same time around 5,000 asylum applications were filed. He described this difference literally as "also eine Minuszuwanderung." He also stressed that 2,000 Syrians have left Austria and that the proceedings of around 13,000 Syrians are currently being reviewed. In 4,000 of these cases, the protection status has already been downgraded. ## In his conversation with Dobrindt, Karner confirmed that family reunification, suspended last year, is to be replaced in the autumn by a quota that, in his words, will be "sehr, sehr niedrig" in Austria. He justified the suspension with rising youth crime in connection with a strong influx through family reunification. Statistically, however, the situation has already eased: in the first half of 2024, 6,000 people still came to Austria through family reunification, while in the first half of the current year, according to Karner, there were only 55. ## Around 80 percent of family reunifications in the first half of 2024 settled in Vienna, according to the data. According to Karner's estimates, around 100,000 Syrians live in Austria in total. The interior minister also announced that rejected asylum seekers are to be encouraged to voluntarily leave the country in the future with return assistance of 3,000 euros – according to the information, this offer ran from July to September. ## According to Karner's account, the Dublin talks on Thursday are to focus primarily on coordinating the still open points regarding the return centers with other EU partners. According to both ministers, Austria and Germany were the first EU states to resume direct deportations to Syria and Afghanistan. Negotiations on the future centers are to be concluded by the end of 2026, according to Karner and Dobrindt, so that the first transfers to these facilities can take place from next year. ## FAQ: Q: What are the planned return centers? A: According to Interior Minister Karner, these are facilities in third countries outside the EU to which rejected asylum seekers are to be transferred. Negotiations in the "Group of Implementers" are underway with potential partner countries. Q: Why was family reunification suspended? A: Karner justified the suspension with rising youth crime in connection with a strong influx through family reunification. In the first half of 2024, 6,000 people came to Austria through this channel. Q: How many people are currently affected by asylum proceedings? A: According to Karner, around 13,000 proceedings involving Syrians are being reviewed, and in 4,000 cases the protection status has already been downgraded. According to Karner, around 100,000 Syrians live in Austria in total.

Karner and Dobrindt push for completion of return center negotiations by year-end

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