Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehhammer felt the need to explain once again why Austria opposes Romania and Bulgaria joining Schengen, after Vienna’s refusal continued to cause international outcry and criticism, the daily newspaper Die Presse reported, as quoted by news.ro.

Such an approach was a matter of security for Austria, the chancellor reiterated, renewing his criticism of the EU’s “misguided” asylum policy and accusing Austria of pressure. According to Nehhammer, the migration debate has restarted at the EU level due to Austria’s veto.

Austria’s blocking on Thursday of the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the zone without border control caused a great resonance. Criticism was expressed not only by German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock, but also by the right-wing governments of Italy and Hungary, which are known to take a hard line on migration. Romania also resorted to radical diplomatic measures and recalled its ambassador to Austria for consultations, writes Die Presse.

“There will be no expansion (of Schengen) until the external border is effectively protected. The EU’s failed asylum policy has caused this situation. Threats and polemical arguments are used to try to increase the pressure on Austria,” the chancellor said. “As long as 75,000 foreigners are arriving unregistered in eastern Austria, this is a security problem and needs to be addressed immediately,” Nehhammer said.

After Tunisians are no longer allowed to enter Serbia without a visa from mid-November, this will also apply to Indians from January, which is likely to end “asylum tourism through Serbia”, according to Austria’s chancellor. He says asylum requests from Tunisians have “dropped sharply” since they ended the visa exemption.

Austria’s interior ministry also cited a number of figures to explain Austria’s restrictive approach. 40 percent of the migrants would arrive in Belgrade by plane and then reach Austria with the help of traffickers via Serbia and Hungary or via Serbia, Romania and Hungary. Another 40 percent come to Austria by land transport from Turkey, via Bulgaria or Romania and Hungary.

Such figures have recently been questioned by migration experts such as Judith Kohlenberger, according to Die Presse.

“From a purely geographical point of view, Bulgaria is not a relevant route for visa-free travelers to Serbia. And only three percent of all asylum seekers from Austria go through Romania,” she wrote on Twitter. “The fact that Austria blames Romania and Bulgaria, but not Hungary or Croatia, is irrational and hypocritical,” she said, quoted by an expert. “Die Presse”. The Ministry of the Interior denied the three percent that the expert says, although earlier Romania also accused Austria of a dispute with false figures, the Austrian daily notes.

While Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, a member of the same conservative ÖVP party to which the chancellor belongs, stressed on several radio stations on Friday that Austria’s actions were not a veto but rather a “call for help”, regional leader Vienna Radnyk Karl Maher of the People’s Party asked in his statement on Saturday to take Austria’s veto seriously. “Rethinking the asylum and migration policy in Europe is necessary. This is the only way to guarantee freedom and security as fundamental rights,” Marer said. The discussion about the distribution of asylum seekers in “Europe of freedom of movement and completely different social systems will not lead anywhere. Expanding the Schengen system, which is already not working, makes no sense,” he said.