Europe immigration news: Austria to cap immigration numbers

Austria declared that it will cap the number of immigrants it will accept into the country, a move that is against the request of EU Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos. 

ABC News reports that Austrian interior minister Johanna Miki-Leitner declared that the plan to do so will take into effect on Friday. Austria is not the first nation to declare a cap on the number of immigrants; Germany has a similar stance as well.

Austria declared that it will only allow 80 migrants everyday who are seeking asylum in its borders. This sends a clear message that the rest of the migrants should start looking for an alternative.

Avramopolous countered this, saying that Austria has a legal obligation not to turn away those who are seeking asylum. A US News report quotes Avramopoulos saying that imposing a cap to the number of immigrants is completely incompatible with the EU and international law.

Meanwhile, the Eurotunnel Group is demanding a compensation of 29 million euros from both France and Britain for the disruption caused by migrants. The tunnel that connects the two countries has served as the passageway for hundreds of migrants who want to cross Britain from France.

Accordinng to The San Diego Union-Tribune, the group announced in its annual report that the growth of both freight and passengers decreased because of the growing migrant crisis in Europe. They further added that passengers significantly decreased by 3 percent ever since the Paris bombing incident.

In Finland alone last year, the number of refugees who arrived in Helsinki seeking asylum reached 32,500 and two-thirds of them are from Iraq. Out of these migrants, more than 3,000 Iraqis did not push through with their asylum application but left the country to go back to Iraq. Finland itself has arranged for flights to return more than a hundred refugees back to Iraq.