VIENNA: Austria announced on Wednesday that it would pause family reunifications for those with asylum status from May, becoming the first in the European Union to do so.
Several EU countries are mulling stopping or tightening the right for people, who cannot safely return to their home countries, to bring their families, but so far no bloc member has a complete halt in place.
Austria has already halted family reunification for Syrians since the ouster of Syria’s leader Bashar Assad last December, arguing it has to reassess the situation and threatening their deportation.
Syrians make up the bulk of family reunifications, but a newly formed conservative-led government — under pressure with anti-immigration sentiment high — has insisted that it needs to stop all.
Integration Minister Claudia Plakolm said the government would make a legal change to allow the interior ministry to issue a decree to halt family reunification.
“By May, so in just a few weeks, the stop is expected to become reality,” Plakolm of the conservative People’s Party (OeVP) told reporters.
“On one hand, our systems have reached their limits and, on the other hand, the probability of successful integration decreases massively with each new arrival,” she added.
The pause is for six months but can be extended until May 2027, she said, adding it was a “mammoth task” to integrate those who have arrived, many of whom struggle to learn German and find jobs.
In 2023, almost 9,300 people arrived due to family reunification; last year it was almost 7,800 people, according to government figures.
Most of them were school-aged minors, placing a burden on schools, the government said.
Rights organizations have criticized the government’s plans in the country of nine million, with one of the main asylum support groups saying they would challenge the decree once issued in court.
“There must be an emergency (to allow the government to pause family reunification), which in Austria is not the case,” Asylkoordination Oesterreich spokesman Lukas Gahleitner told AFP.
The anti-immigration far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) topped parliamentary elections for the first time ever last November, gaining almost a third of the votes.
It failed to form government, with the election runner-up long-ruling OeVP cobbling together a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPOe) and the liberal NEOs.

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia said Wednesday it will appoint a new head of the interim administration in northern Tigray region, where months of tensions between rival factions have threatened a fragile peace agreement.
The region still suffers from the aftermath of a brutal two-year conflict, ended by a 2022 peace deal in Pretoria that established the interim administration.
The war was one of the deadliest in recent decades, claiming roughly 600,000 lives and pitting Tigrayan rebels against federal forces, supported by local militias and the Eritrean army.
"The federal government, taking into account the realities on the ground, is taking action... in order to extend the mandate of the interim government" by one year, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed posted on X, adding that the administration had been "unable to complete its essential tasks within the given timeframe".
Writing in Tigrinya, he said it had "become necessary to appoint a new head of the interim administration" in Tigray to replace Getachew Reda, but did not specify a timetable for replacing him.
Getachew did not respond to AFP's request for comment.
The current tensions in Tigray stem from an internal power struggle between Getachew and Debretsion Gebremichael, head of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).
"If the transition is well managed, it is an opportunity to emerge from the crisis we are in," Wondimu Asamnew, a close associate of Debretsion, told AFP.
"The two years of Getachew Reda's governance have been symbolised by crises and clashes, we now need a stable government," he added.


Although the guns have fallen silent, a failure to fully implement the terms of the Pretoria agreement has fuelled divisions within the Tigrayan political elite.
Armed supporters of Debretsion took over the municipality in Adigrat, Tigray's second-largest town near the Eritrean border, this month, ousting the mayor appointed by Getachew.
Debretsion's faction seized control of Mekele's town hall to reinstate its chosen mayor, as well as the local radio station.
Kjetil Tronvoll, a Horn of Africa specialist and professor at Oslo New University College, said he was unsurprised by the changes.
Getachew's faction "had gradually lost control" over the administration, he said, noting that "his powerbase had waned".
"Abiy Ahmed has been closely observing the evolution of the power struggle," he told AFP.
With the initial mandate of the interim administration expiring, "it was opportune for the federal government to let Getachew go", he added.
The African Union, whose headquarters are in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, has expressed "deep concern" over renewed tensions in the region.
Similarly, the United States, Britain and the European Union also urged all stakeholders to "de-escalate and engage in urgent dialogue".