Austria Shifts Resources from Asylum Housing to Security Recruiting in 2027 Budget Plan

Presenting the interior ministry’s 2027 draft budget on 29 September 2026, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said Austria will close three additional federal accommodation centres and reinvest the savings into police recruitment and infrastructure. The plan, branded “Sparen bei Asyl und investieren in die Sicherheit,” foresees hiring about 2,000 police cadets next year, modernising border-technology assets and reinforcing critical-infrastructure protection teams. Karner argued that Austria’s monthly influx of asylum seekers has fallen to pre-2015 levels thanks to tighter external-border measures and bilateral return agreements. Federal basic-services facilities, which peaked at 92 sites in 2025, will be reduced to 64 by mid-2027. The ministry estimates an annual saving of €38 million in operating costs—funds that will be redirected to training, body-cams and mobile biometric units used in border and foreign-police checks. For companies that rely on third-country nationals, fewer federally run reception centres mean that new arrivals will spend more time in provincial facilities while their claims are processed. Employers sponsoring Red-White-Red Card holders or seasonal staff should anticipate longer waits for medical examinations and police registration in certain regions if local capacity is stretched. The recruitment drive, meanwhile, is expected to shorten wait times for residence-permit police interviews and on-site compliance visits—areas criticised by business lobby groups for slowing down work-permit issuance. Karner said an additional 400 officers will be assigned to immigration and border-control duties from mid-2027, once the new cadets graduate. Stakeholders welcomed the clarity on timelines but urged the ministry to ring-fence part of the savings for digitising residence-permit workflows before the Entry/Exit System (EES) becomes fully operational in 2027. The ministry responded that a separate €12 million IT envelope is included in the wider security package but gave no project schedule.