24 September 2015, 15:17 GMT
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Austrian government has turned some 5,000 refugees back to the EU countries in which they first entered and is expected to continue the practice, Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said Friday.
"If I remember rightly, we have sent more than 5,000 or 5,500 back from Austria, especially to Bulgaria and Romania amongst others," Mikl-Leitner told journalists after a meeting with the Bavarian Christian Social Union party, as quoted by The Local news portal.
Mikl-Leitner added that refugees who apply for asylum in Austria after traveling through Croatia and Slovenia from the Middle East and North Africa would be sent back to these EU states.
Under the 1997 EU Dublin Regulation laws, asylum seekers must file applications in the EU member state in which they first arrive.
Over half a million refugees have arrived in the European Union this year, fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries, according to the European Commission.
