The European Union's open-door policy to migrants was wrong, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said in an interview with the Slovenia news website Siol.net on Tuesday, expressing satisfaction that the EU member states today have a different view.

Kurz said that illegal migration and the fight against the coronavirus pandemic were the main challenges facing the EU. He said that the EU's open-door policy at the time of the first large migration wave in 2015/2016 sent a wrong signal to people who had left their countries and many of whom had been killed on the way.

“The problem of illegal migration is far from resolved. There are increasing difficulties with countries on the EU's external border, primarily Turkey,” Kurz said, adding that the EU had made a mistake five years ago when it allowed refugees and migrants to enter Europe on a mass scale.

“Europe made a mistake then. That decision was not right and I am pleased that we have a different view in Europe today. Today the European Union aims to protect its external borders,” Kurz said in the interview during his working visit to Slovenia, adding that his view was supported by Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa.