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UN Chief Slams EU Members for 'Increasingly Restrictive' Refugee Policies

© Flickr / Thomas LieserAustrian Parliament
Austrian Parliament - Sputnik International
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Member states of the European Union adopt "increasingly restrictive" policies to address the bloc’s biggest refugee crisis in decades, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The first non-Austrian to address the national parliament, Ban spoke a day after Austrian lawmakers passed strict asylum laws that would declare a state of emergency in case of an extraordinary influx of migrants. The amended legislation allows Austria to reject asylum seekers at the border and send them to neighboring countries.

"I am concerned that European countries are now adopting increasingly restrictive immigration and refugee policies. Such policies negatively affect the obligation of member states under international humanitarian law and European law," The Guardian daily quoted Ban telling Austrian lawmakers in Vienna.

Migrants and refugees block the railway tracks as they protest in makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni on March 30, 2016, where thousands of them are stranded by the Balkan border blockade - Sputnik International
Reap What You Sow: This is How 'Europe Has Created Refugee Crisis'
The government is eligible to introduce the state of emergency for up to 6 months and later extend it three times for another period of 6 months.

The bill was passed after a right-wing Freedom Party of Austria candidate, Norbert Hofer, won the first round of the Austrian presidential election held last week.

Additionally, Austrian media reported Wednesday that the country was planning to construct a 1,300-foot fence on the Italian border to prevent new migrant arrivals. The European Commission sent a letter to Vienna this month demanding explanation for the construction of a border control post at the Brenner Pass in purported violation of the visa-free travel Schengen Agreement.

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