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Federal Ministry
Republic of Austria
lnterior
Ministry of Immigration
and Integration
GZ: 2280/430-KBM/18
Response to UNHCR, Assistant High Commissioner Volker Turk
Case Postale 2500
1211 Geneve 2 Depot
Switzerland
7 November 2018
Dear Sir,
We wish to express our sincere thanks for your letter of 26 October 2018 providing us with
constructive initial observations to our recently published joint Austrian-Danish "Vision paper for a
Better Protection System in a Globalized World".
We very much appreciate that we share the common view that much more needs to be done by the
European Union and its Member States in order to achieve a fairer and better system capable of
operating in a globalized world. We must prevent loss of life and suffering along migratory routes,
while ensuring that our asylum and migration policies are sustainable.
We are also encouraged to note that we share a common understanding as to the majority of the
goals of our vision.A vision which - when implemented - leads to less irregular migration, more
protection to people in need, more money for the regions or origin and more trust in European
asylum and migration policies .Moreover, on the point of breaking the business model of the
traffickers and smugglers, we are reassured by your commitment that more action is required.
However, a few of your observations may in our opinion be based on a misconception.
Firstly, it would appear that your reference to "offloading responsibility onto other States or
Regions" indicates that this is the purpose of the Danish/Austrian Vision paper. However, this is
certainly not the case: in faet, every goal of the vision seeks to generate more support and more
effective protection to the most vulnerable as close as possible to their countries of origin and to
their hosting populations, to prevent loss of life and exploitation along migratory routes and to
ensure solidarity among EU Member States.
Secondly, you raise concerns regarding "transferring asylum seekers out of the EU to third countries"
and "externalizing asylum processing". Again, we believe that these concerns are based on a
misunderstanding. The vision paper fully acknowledges that all states must comply with their
international obligations and assume responsibility for processing asylum claims submitted on their