Speaking to Welt am Sonntag, Austrian Home-Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner revealed that EU deportations reached 27 % of ordered returns in the first three quarters of 2025, up from 19 % in 2023 and the highest level since 2019.
Brunner credited newly adopted migration-and-asylum reforms – streamlined border procedures, expanded detention capacity and tougher cooperation with origin countries – but argued the rate is “still far from sufficient”. He wants member states to accelerate removals and explore offshore processing centres, a politically fraught proposal likely to resurface as the EU finalises its migration pact.
For Austria, which logged a 35 % drop in asylum applications last year, improved EU-wide enforcement could ease administrative burdens on provincial authorities and reduce ‘secondary movements’ within the Schengen area. Employers may benefit indirectly: fewer backlogs at the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum could reallocate staff to work-permit processing.
![Austrian EU Commissioner Notes Record 27 % Deportation Rate, Urges Faster Returns]()
To stay ahead of these shifts, companies and individual travellers can streamline their visa and residence applications through VisaHQ’s Austria portal (https://www.visahq.com/austria/). The service aggregates the latest entry regulations, offers step-by-step digital forms and provides expert document checks, reducing the risk of delays or refusals while administrative scrutiny intensifies.
Nevertheless, tougher return policies can create HR headaches. Companies employing third-country nationals with rejected claims must ensure termination and repatriation clauses comply with Austrian labour law and EU posting-rules. Mobility teams should audit employee records and ensure robust right-to-work checks to avoid penalties.
Analysts note that a higher deportation rate may also induce stricter document scrutiny at external borders, lengthening queues for certain nationalities. Travel-risk software should therefore update processing-time assumptions for 2026 itineraries.
Brunner credited newly adopted migration-and-asylum reforms – streamlined border procedures, expanded detention capacity and tougher cooperation with origin countries – but argued the rate is “still far from sufficient”. He wants member states to accelerate removals and explore offshore processing centres, a politically fraught proposal likely to resurface as the EU finalises its migration pact.
For Austria, which logged a 35 % drop in asylum applications last year, improved EU-wide enforcement could ease administrative burdens on provincial authorities and reduce ‘secondary movements’ within the Schengen area. Employers may benefit indirectly: fewer backlogs at the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum could reallocate staff to work-permit processing.
To stay ahead of these shifts, companies and individual travellers can streamline their visa and residence applications through VisaHQ’s Austria portal (https://www.visahq.com/austria/). The service aggregates the latest entry regulations, offers step-by-step digital forms and provides expert document checks, reducing the risk of delays or refusals while administrative scrutiny intensifies.
Nevertheless, tougher return policies can create HR headaches. Companies employing third-country nationals with rejected claims must ensure termination and repatriation clauses comply with Austrian labour law and EU posting-rules. Mobility teams should audit employee records and ensure robust right-to-work checks to avoid penalties.
Analysts note that a higher deportation rate may also induce stricter document scrutiny at external borders, lengthening queues for certain nationalities. Travel-risk software should therefore update processing-time assumptions for 2026 itineraries.
