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IMMIGRATION

Camps ‘worst possible solution’: Red Cross

The Red Cross on Friday strongly criticised the Austrian government over its decision to set up tent camps for asylum seekers in response to the rapidly growing influx of refugees.

Camps 'worst possible solution': Red Cross
Tents being set up in Linz, Upper Austria. Photo: LPD OÖ/Michael Dietrich

“For us this is the worst possible solution,” said the general secretary of the Austrian Red Cross, Werner Kerschbaum, ahead of a crisis summit in Vienna.

He added that the nation, as one of Europe's richest states, had plenty of other options to accommodate migrants.

The government has already built one camp near the city of Salzburg, and is planning two more in northern Austria to help deal with the migrants who come predominantly from Syria and Afghanistan.

A record 314 asylum requests were made on Monday alone, according to official figures.

Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner defended the tent project, saying it had been the “last option” in light of the “explosive increase” in refugees in recent times.

But the Catholic charity Caritas echoed the concerns of the Red Cross and called the solution “unnecessary”.

Its secretary general Klaus Schwertner believes the government may be trying to put pressure on the European Union with shock images of the migrants in the camps.

Austria, a country of 8.5 million inhabitants, is a fervent supporter of the EU's controversial migration plan launched earlier this week.

The proposal foresees the mandatory redistribution of asylum seekers across the 28-member bloc, to help ease the burden on southern nations where refugees first arrive by boat.

The scheme has been opposed by a number of countries, including Britain and Hungary.

Austria received more than 28,000 asylum requests in 2014, three times the European average relative to population size.

This year, 14,200 demands were already made between January and April.

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FAR-RIGHT

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Radical Austrian nationalist Martin Sellner has been banned from entering Germany, it emerged on Tuesday, days after he was deported from Switzerland.

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Sellner, a leader of Austria’s white pride Identitarian Movement, posted a video of himself on X, formerly Twitter, reading out a letter he said was from the city of Potsdam.

A spokeswoman for the city authorities confirmed to AFP that an EU citizen had been served with a “ban on their freedom of movement in Germany”.

The person can no longer enter or stay in Germany “with immediate effect” and could be stopped by police or deported if they try to enter the country, the spokeswoman said, declining to name the individual for privacy reasons.

READ ALSO: Who is Austria’s far-right figurehead banned across Europe?

“We have to show that the state is not powerless and will use its legitimate means,” Mike Schubert, the mayor of Potsdam, said in a statement.

Sellner caused an uproar in Germany after allegedly discussing the Identitarian concept of “remigration” with members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) at a meeting in Potsdam in November.

Reports of the meeting sparked a huge wave of protests against the AfD, with tens of thousands of Germans attending demonstrations across the country.

READ ALSO:

Swiss police said Sunday they had prevented a hundred-strong far-right gathering due to be addressed by Sellner, adding that he had been arrested and deported.

The Saturday meeting had been organised by the far-right Junge Tat group, known for its anti-immigration and anti-Islamic views.

The group is also a proponent of the far-right white nationalist Great Replacement conspiracy theory espoused by Sellner’s Identitarian Movement.

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