Austria Sees More Deportations Than Asylum Applications for First Time in Years!
Austria experienced a dramatic shift in its asylum system in January 2026, as deportations outnumbered new asylum applications for the first time in years. Officials reported 1,083 deportations compared to 945 new applications, marking the lowest figures in nearly six years.
Compared to January 2025, asylum requests fell by 51 percent, with less than half of the 945 applications coming from new arrivals. Children born in Austria accounted for 55.5 percent of applicants, while Syrians led the nationalities list with 264 requests. The near-complete halt of family reunification programs played a major role, dropping arrivals from 830 in January 2024 to just one this year.
Of the 1,083 deportations, 602 were carried out forcibly, and roughly 41.5 percent of those deported had criminal records. Austrian authorities also reported that smuggling routes in the east are almost unmanageable, with only 65 arrests between January and mid-February 2026, compared to about 3,000 in the same period in 2023. Only seven of those arrested applied for asylum.
Border controls with Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia have been extended for another six months, supported by military personnel. Meanwhile, 1,949 asylum applications were rejected or suspended, 125 individuals left voluntarily, and 653 applicants were granted asylum or subsidiary protection. Applicants from Georgia, India, and Tunisia were rejected outright.
At the end of January, 51,935 people were under Austria’s basic care system, including 1,239 in federal care. Ukrainians fleeing the war made up over 29,700 of these cases. This represents a significant decline from early 2023, when nearly 93,000 people received basic care, allowing the reduction of federal shelters from more than 30 to the current eight.