We present Sebastian Sperner’s analysis of the border controls currently in force in Austria, police cooperation with other countries, with particular attention to the southern border and the German border, as well as the role of the Administrative Court of Styria in significant cases.
Sebastian Sperner works in Vienna with the NGO ASYL Koordination, an organization that deals with advocacy and collaborates with other NGOs on migration issues. The organization has recently launched a section dedicated to strategic litigation, collecting donations to finance targeted legal cases.
His contribution focuses on the Austrian situation and on Schengen borders, and in particular on the border controls currently in force in Austria, on police cooperation with other countries, and on the important litigation that took place before the Administrative Court of Styria in relation to cases of informal readmission of international protection applicants.
Re-writing Borders – Unmapping the map
Sebastian Sperner’s presentation took place at the Re-writing Borders – Unmapping the map event organized by the Medea Project, from July 3 to 6, 2025 in Trieste. With the aim of reflecting on European migration policies, on the implications for the rights of foreign nationals and for the stability of democracy, the event brought together practitioners, lawyers and activists in support of foreign nationals.
Part of the meetings concerned the internal borders of the European Union, now a space of free movement exclusive to European citizens or citizens with somatic features comparable to “whiteness”. We have documented this since 2015, recounting and challenging the policies of Member States that have progressively reduced the mobility of foreign nationals by resorting in a completely disproportionate manner to “exceptional” instruments, such as the reintroduction of border controls, or illegitimate ones, such as informal readmissions and generally pushbacks at borders, through advocacy tools or legal analysis and litigation actions.
Border controls in place
Austria currently maintains border controls with four different countries, organized in two separate orders and renewed every six months.
The borders with Slovakia and the Czech Republic
Since April 2015, border controls have been in force with Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The argument presented to DG Home (EU Commission) focuses on irregular migration and on the pressure that migrants exert on Austrian society and system. The Austrian government maintains the necessity of these controls to protect the country and monitor terrorist groups. The argument remains substantially unchanged since 2015.
Despite the ruling of the European Court of Justice, Austria insists on not complying with the decision, repeatedly using the same arguments. The country implements both stationary and mobile border controls, at entry points and in areas near the borders.
Data on controls are limited since they are not regularly published. It is necessary for European parliamentarians to request this information from the Ministry of the Interior. For 2023, approximately 3,000 people on the move were registered near these two borders, with only two refusals of entry (one for Slovakia and one for the Czech Republic). Eleven readmission requests were submitted, all rejected by both Slovakia and the Czech Republic. No data are available for 2024.
The borders with Hungary and Slovenia
Border controls with Hungary and Slovenia have been in place since the beginning of 2015, with renewals occurring every six months as well. The rationale given for their necessity remains fundamentally the same.
An interesting aspect is that every time border controls are reintroduced, the Minister of the Interior issues public statements, maintaining the dangerousness of the situation and the necessity of such policies. In the same statements, he claims that the controls have been effective given the reduced number of migrant arrivals, thereby contradicting himself. According to the government’s logic, the controls should therefore no longer be necessary. In week 17 of 2015, only 19 people crossed the border towards Burgenland.
In 2023, 192 refusals of entry were recorded regarding Hungary and none for Slovenia. The Slovenian government has been critical of these controls, defining them as costly and unnecessary.
In 2024, 1,400 people on the move were registered near the Hungarian border, a relatively low number considering the strategic position on the Balkan route.
International police cooperation
Fox operation
Introduced in December 2022, Operation Fox represents a cooperation between Austrian and Hungarian police forces. According to European law, Austrian police officers can use force in Hungary when a Hungarian officer is also present, with the aim of combating illegal migration.
In June 2024, approximately 32 Austrian police officers were employed. There are numerous testimonies of pushbacks and human rights violations by the Hungarian police. Although it is not official public information, there is evidence that the Austrian police were involved in these actions or were aware of them.
The operation cost over 2 million euros in 2023 and will probably be extended to the Romanian-Hungarian border.
Police cooperation with Serbia
There is a cooperation between the Serbian and Austrian police with approximately 25 Austrian officers employed in Serbia, mainly at the Serbian-North Macedonian border, with the use of thermal equipment, buses and drones to support the border police. The extension of this practice to the Serbian-Bulgarian border is planned.
The Austrian Minister of the Interior mentioned that approximately 140 police officers are present in the Balkans in general, a number higher than the 55 known for Hungary and Serbia. Information on where they are located and what they do remains limited.
Situation at the southern border
The informal readmission agreement with Slovenia
n 2022, an informal readmission agreement was established between Austria and Slovenia. Following this agreement, an increase in pushbacks at the border was documented; in particular, activists in the field did work collecting testimonies and evidence, specifically engaging in two support cases for two people on the move in challenging the pushback.
The decisions of the Administrative Court of Styria
First case (July 2021)
The court issued a historic ruling regarding a Moroccan citizen residing in Bosnia. Although the applicant had filed an asylum application after entering Austria, he was subjected to chain pushbacks: first to Slovenia, then to Croatia and finally to Bosnia.
The ruling clearly established that the practice was illegal, the treatment of the applicant was inhuman, and that there was a systematic practice of pushbacks from Austria to Slovenia. The Landespolizeidirektion Steiermark appealed the decision before the High Administrative Court, which rejected the appeal in May 2022.
The second case
A similar case involved a Somali minor who, once he entered Austria together with a group of other people on the move, had requested asylum and was nevertheless pushed back to Slovenia. His asylum application was clearly documented.
The court declared the practice illegal, establishing that it constituted an illegal pushback. Slovenia actually granted asylum to the person, but the Austrian pushback remains illegal. In this case too, the Landespolizeidirektion Steiermark attempted to appeal, but the High Court again rejected the appeal in May 2022.
Policy change: following these two rulings, police policy changed. The Ministry of the Interior issued an internal decree that defines the criteria to be applied when people on the move enter Austria, specifying that the expression of an asylum application can occur not only verbally but also through behaviors that signal fear of suffering harm in the country of origin.
These decisions constitute an effective example of strategic litigation: the close collaboration between NGOs, lawyers and activists produced a concrete policy change and led to the cessation of pushbacks in that portion of the Austrian border.
The situation at the Austro-German border
Since 2022, there has been an increase in pushbacks and registrations on the German side of the Austro-German border. Activists from Pushback Alarm Austria have collected evidence of these pushbacks, publishing six detailed reports.
It emerged that these practices did not only concern people who had not requested asylum, but also those who had actually expressed the request, verbally or through behaviors indicative of fear, and had not been heard, with asylum claims often ignored by the police.
Statistics show that the people most affected come from countries with high recognition rates for international protection.
Since this practice has been in place since 2022, the modification of German policies in May 2025 had little operational impact. Methods to circumvent controls were already in use, such as border sections without police presence and alternative solutions for rejected minors.
The Austrian reaction to German policy
Initially Austria quickly denounced the new German policy, but after a few weeks the criticism subsided. Austria itself uses Article 72 of the TFEU in a different context and has suspended all family reunification cases for people with asylum or subsidiary protection, claiming the existence of a state of emergency.
The 50-page document supporting this decision contains openly racist arguments. Austria uses the same arguments as Germany, creating a domino effect that erodes European law.
Actual legal challenges
There are significant efforts by NGOs and lawyers to challenge these practices, but the situation is particularly complicated: the appeals predominantly concern individual cases, NGOs do not have effective instruments to promote collective appeals, and it is complex to bring issues based on arguments of unconstitutionality before the European Court or the high Austrian courts.
Drones surveillance
Austria has been using drones for border surveillance for several years. Activists at the Slovenian border report that residents in border areas have complained about the noise and violation of privacy in their gardens.
The Minister of the Interior publicly states the use of these drones to obtain better information on people on the move and to discourage people from coming to Austria.
The new government program on migration
The new government, established a few months ago (March 2025), in its program clearly outlines the intention to extend cooperation with police forces of neighboring countries. An increase in the presence of Austrian police in the Balkans and greater cooperation is expected.
The government wants to develop new opportunities to provide video and drone surveillance, which will become an increasingly important issue in the coming years.
Paradoxically, the program states that the goal is to eliminate internal border controls, although the new Schengen Code offers greater room for maneuver to argue the necessity of these controls.
