Austria says it won't sign UN global migration pact over sovereignty fears

Austria will follow the United States and Hungary in backing out of a UN migration pact over concerns it will blur the line between legal and illegal migration, the Austrian government said on Wednesday.

Conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz took office last December in a coalition with the nationalist, anti-migration Freedom Party. Austria currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency,and Kurz has made curbing unregulated migration a priority.

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration,which won't be legally binding, was finalized under UN auspices inJuly. It is due to be formally approved at a December meeting in Marrakech, Morocco.

Kurz and Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache said Austriawon't sign the document or send an official representative toMarrakech. They cited, among other things, fears about a possiblewatering-down of the distinction between legal and illegalmigration.

"There are some points that we view critically and where we feara danger to our national sovereignty,"Kurzsaid.

"Some of the contents go diametrically against our position,"addedStrache, the Freedom Party's leader.

"Migration is not and cannot become a human right. It cannot be that someone receives a right to migration because of the climate or poverty."

Pact 'inconsistent with U.S. policy'

Austria took in roughly one per centof its population inasylum seekers in 2015 during a migration crisis in which more
than a million people travelled to Europe, many of them fleeingwar and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere.

That experience dominated last year's parliamentary electionand helped propel Kurz's conservatives to power. He has said hewill prevent any repeat of that influx and has implementedpolicies that include restricting benefits for new immigrants.

In September 2016, all 193 UNmember states, including the United Statesunder former president Barack Obama, adopted a declarationsaying no country can manage international migration on its own, andagreed to launch a process leading to the adoption of a globalcompact in 2018.

But last December, the U.S.said it was ending itsparticipation in negotiations on the compact, stating that numerous provisions were "inconsistent with U.S. immigration and refugeepolicies" under President Donald Trump.

In July, Hungary said it would withdraw from the process.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said then that the pact was contrary to his country's interests because while it hadsome positive aims, like fighting human trafficking, overall itconsidered migration an unstoppable and positive phenomenon worthyof support.

Poland, which has also clashed with Brussels by resistingnational quotas for asylum seekers, has said it is consideringthe same step.

The non-binding UNpact addresses issues such as how toprotect people who migrate, how to integrate them into new countries and how to return them to their home countries. The United Nations has hailed it as a historic and comprehensive pact that could serve as a basis for futurepolicies.

Austria's interior minister, Herbert Kickl, denounced what he called "an almost irresponsibly naive pro-migration tone."

Kickl contended that "it is simply not clear whether this pact, if we were to join it, would not at some point or somehow influenceour body of law, even by the back door."

Austria's opposition criticized the decision.

In Brussels, Natasha Bertaud, a spokesperson for the EU'sexecutive commission, said it regrets Austria's decision and isseeking more details from Vienna.

"We continue to believe that migration is a global challengewhere only global solutions and global responsibility sharing willbring results," she said at a regular briefing.

EU heavyweight Germany reaffirmed its support for the pact, whichforeign ministry spokespersonRainer Breul said is "necessary andimportant."