Austrian authorities have now agreed a draft law under which rejected refugees will no longer be entitled to provisions paid for by the country’s taxpayers.
The bill is part of a wider reform of laws dealing with foreigners in Austria.
The bill would make asylum applicants who lie about their identities face fines of up to 5,000 euros or three weeks in jail.
Asylum seekers in Austria get basic services, including free accommodation, food, access to medical treatment and €40 ($42.41) in benefits a month. Of about 4,000 people who receive basic services but should have left the country, some 2,000 could be affected if the law is passed, as they are healthy enough to travel to their home countries.
The new regulations aim at countering the rise of the right wing Freedom Party, whose candidate came close to winning the presidential election last December.
According to Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka, “those denied asylum will have to face the consequences. The first thing is basically that they don’t get anything from the Austrian state if they don’t have the right to stay here. Is that so hard to understand? Laws should be passed in the country so rejected asylum seekers leave voluntarily”.
Austria took in approximately 90,000 asylum seekers in 2015 and it has since tightened immigration restrictions and helped shut down the route through the Greece by which almost all the migrants arrived.