Financial aid should be cut for uncooperative African countries in migrant crisis: Austrian FM

Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-22 02:35:47|Editor: yan
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VIENNA, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Austrian foreign minister Sebastian Kurz on Wednesday said African countries who refuse to take back denied asylum seekers should receive cuts to financial aid.

Austria Press Agency reported the minister and a likely upcoming chancellor candidate had also renewed calls for the Mediterranean Sea to be closed as a migration route for asylum seekers.

He said strengthened cooperation with African countries in the matter has been a positive thing, though added that "we wish that there would be more pressure on these states."

Funding for development and other European subsidies would be cut should rejected asylum seekers not be taken back, he said.

He said the Mediterranean migration route has seen an increase in traffic of 30 percent each year, and that the number of deaths is also constantly rising. As such people must be stopped at the EU outer borders at the latest, and be cared for and subsequently returned home.

Kurz again pointed out the successes of the closure of the Western Balkans migration route, of which he was a major proponent, as evidence that such closures can have their intended effect.

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