Austria Refuses to Sign UN Global Migration Pact

Austria refused to sign the UN Global Migration Pact, Reuters reported on October 31, citing a statement by country Chancellor Sebastian Kurtz. According to him, this pact blurs the boundaries between legal and illegal migration. He also noted that some points of the document are very critically, such as the mixing up of seeking protection with labor migration Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache also expressed concern that this pact could start promoting a human right to migrate. Thus, the representative of Austria will not go to Morocco in December to sign the pact, and Vienna will abstain from voting on the document in the UN General Assembly in 2019. Earlier, on October 10, Sebastian Kurtz stated that many points of the UN Global Migration Pact are critically assessed in the country. He also promised to do everything possible so that Vienna could independently make decisions on the issue of migration. Source: Izvestia