BBC Online :UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has criticised “increasingly restrictive” policies on migrants in Europe.In a speech to the Austrian parliament, he said such curbs ran counter to member countries’ international duties.He was speaking a day after Austrian MPs approved a draft law restricting asylum rights and allowing most claims to be rejected at the border.The European Union, including Austria, is struggling to cope with a huge influx of mainly Syrian migrants.More than a million people arrived in Europe last year sparking the worst refugee crisis on the continent since World War Two, and creating division in the EU over how to deal with it. “I am concerned that European countries are now adopting increasingly restrictive immigration and refugee policies,” Mr Ban told MPs in Vienna.”Such policies negatively affect the obligation of member states under international humanitarian law and European law.”Mr Ban did not name any country but, given the venue, the speech has been widely interpreted as being aimed at least in part at Austria, correspondents say.The country’s new bill would allow the government to declare a “state of emergency” over migrants and to reject most asylum-seekers, including those from Syria.It also limits any successful claim to asylum status to three years. Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said Austria had no other choice as long as “so many other EU members fail to do their part” to limit the influx.The legislation, which now goes to the upper house, has been condemned by rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
