The Council of Ministers meeting on 12 March 2025 decided on an immediate halt to family reunification in Austria. The Minister of the Interior had already informed Commissioner Magnus Brunner on 5 March 2025 that Austria would apply the EU emergency clause and suspend family reunification. According to the statement, the procedure for processing asylum applications by Syrian nationals was already discontinued in December 2024 which significantly reduced family reunification requests.
In recent years, Austria experienced an increase of family reunifications and reception capacities and its systems are limited or have already exceeded their capacity limits.