Austria will not sign the UN Migration Convention

After the United States and Hungary, Austria is not planning to sign the planned UN convention on migration. Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (OVP) and Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache (FPO) today announced that a ministerial meeting should take place.

The right-wing Austrian government fears that the ‘Global Convention for Safe, Orderly and Regulated Migration’ (GCM), which was adopted by all UN member states outside of America in July, will blur the border between legal and illegal migration.

The right-wing Hungarian government of Viktor Orban announced in December that it would not sign the final agreement. Poland is also considering doing the same.

“We have decided that we will not join the treaty,” Kurz said on the radio of the Austrian public broadcaster. Austria will not send a delegate to the signing ceremony in Morocco and will abstain from the UN vote on the treaty next year.