Too Many? Austria Unable to Accept More Than 100,000 Migrants Per Year

Austria's vice chancellor urged the EU to secure the bloc's external borders, as new waves of refugees were expected to arrive in March 2016.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — It is "impossible" for Austria to accept more than 100,000 migrants a year, the country’s vice chancellor, Reinhold Mitterlehner, said, as broadcast by local media Monday.

"[Austria can accept] around 90-100,000 [refugees a year], any more would simply not be possible," Mitterlehner told the ORF radio station.

The vice chancellor also said that EU countries should step up their work to secure the bloc's external borders, as new waves of refugees were expected to arrive in March 2016.

Austria expects to receive about 95,000 asylum applications this year, which is around 1 percent of the country’s population. Some 28,000 asylum seekers registered in the country last year.

The European Union is currently struggling to manage a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

Last week, the European Commission proposed to create a European Border and Coast Guard to better protect the European Union's external borders.