VIENNA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th August, 2021) Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer called on the European Union on Wednesday to act to avoid an influx of Afghan refugees by encouraging them to stay in the region.
"The goal should be to keep the majority [of refugees] in the region," he told a news conference.
Nehammer said the EU should band together to avoid a repeat of the 2015 migrant crisis when hundreds of thousands arrived at the EU's doorstep.
Austria expects the bloc to assist displaced Afghans in neighboring countries, while bolstering EU's external borders and discouraging migrants from making the thousands-mile-long journey to Europe.
Austria will continue deporting illegal migrants and deal with fake news that claim deportations have stopped, Nehammer said.
He said the small Alpine nation had the EU's second largest number of Afghans per 100,000 residents, which created challenges in integration, internal security and social spending.
