© EPAThe Independent Sebastian Kurz and his girlfriend Susanne Thier
Austria is set to follow the United States and Hungary by backing out of a United Nations migration pact.
The right-wing Austrian government, which took office last December, has said it will not sign the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration which looks to make migration safer.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz stood on an anti-immigration platform and since taking office in December has implemented a number of policies that include restricting benefits for new immigrants.
"Austria will not join the UN migration pact," Mr Kurz said in a statement.
"We view some points of the migration pact very critically, such as the mixing up of seeking protection with labour migration."
Austria took in roughly one per cent of its population in asylum seekers in 2015 during a migration crisis in which more than a million people travelled to Europe, many of them fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere.
Comment: Life be better for everyone if the UN was overhauled, and instead focused on the causes of war and poverty?
The non-binding UN pact is aimed at making migration safe and orderly.
It addresses issues such as how to protect people who migrate, how to integrate them into new countries and how to return them to their home countries.
Hungary also said it will not sign the final document at a ceremony in Morocco in December and Poland, which has also clashed with Brussels by resisting national quotas for asylum seekers, has said it is considering the same step.
Comment: It's likely many more countries, particularly those in the EU besieged by migrants, in large part due to wars waged by the Western world, will refuse to sign up to this mandate. There's also the nefarious issue of who is pushing this agenda, and why:
- Immigration, Crime and Propaganda
- Terrorism, Immigration and Racism in Canada: The Backlash has Begun
- Soros looks to gain from investments with European 'forced migration'
- 5,000 now heading north, mystery men hand out cash as migrant "attack caravan" regroups at Guatemala-Mexico border
- "This is what I am paid to do": Italy's Salvini challenges prosecutor after blocking migrant ship carrying 190 mostly male Africans
Also check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: Weapons of Mass Migration: Interview with Michael Springmann on Europe's Migrant Crisis