The Austrian Interior Ministry's decision to impose targeted border controls to curb smuggling and asylum abuse has led to the detention of 68,800 migrants and asylum-seekers including Bangladeshis who have tried to enter the central European country through irregular means in the past five months.
The majority of the migrants, 46,000 in number, were picked up by police in Burgenland, the easternmost Austrian state that borders Hungary, Slovenia and Slovakia.
The migrants mainly came from Afghanistan, India, Syria, Tunisia and Pakistan, according to Gerhard Karner, the interior minister of the EU member state. Many of them are from Bangladesh too.
Around 56,000 asylum applications were filed in Austria from January to August this year, Karner said.
He pointed out that many of the migrants who came recently to his country through irregular routes are from India, a relatively peaceful South Asian country in terms of security compared to neighboring Pakistan and nearby Afghanistan.
Around 7,600 Indians have applied for asylum in the country, according to the Austrian government's statistics. But Afghans top the list with 12,000 asylum applications recorded, a surge related to the Taliban's takeover of the country last year.
DW met several Indian migrants at a refugee camp in Serbia earlier this year, who said that they had flown to the Balkan country with the benefits of a visa-free agreement between Belgrade and New Delhi.
The migrants, who left India for economic reasons, were waiting to cross into the EU through irregular routes to reach countries like Italy, France and Germany.
Shahanaz Parven, an independent migration researcher based in Krems, Austria, also noticed a surge in Indian migrants through the Balkan route.
"Most of the Indian irregular migrants reach Europe for economic reasons, and some of these are a direct consequence of climate change," she said.
"Skilled migrants, too, are included among the migrants," Parven added.
Mohammad Jamir, who asked not to reveal his real name, is a Bangladeshi migrant who was arrested by Austrian police last month along with dozens of other migrants from India and Pakistan during their attempt to reach Italy from Romania by hiding in a covered van. He told DW that none of them were interested in seeking asylum in Austria.
"I have come to Romania with a valid work visa that cost me around €7,000. But the company that was supposed to employ me didn't give me any work. After that, I decided to move to Italy with the help of a smuggler. But Austrian police arrested us while crossing into the country," he told DW.
The migrants were later transferred to a refugee camp in Traiskirchen. Jamir said he had paid around €4,000 to a smuggler to arrange his trip from Romania.
Thirty-one other migrants from South Asia accompanied him on the journey. Human smugglers often hide undocumented migrants in lorries and covered vans to transport them from Serbia and Romania to western EU countries.
Those vehicles mainly pass through Hungary and Austria and end up in Italy, the prime destination for most undocumented migrants.
Parven thinks that the irregular migration route has been interrupted by Austria recently, which led to an increase in undocumented migrants being picked up in the EU state.
"The Austrian government has recently enacted measures for border control that imply the verification of travel documents for all vehicles, including those that the migrants take to cross the border," she said.
The Austrian interior minister also said that the people who were trying to take irregular routes to the EU were being abused by smugglers. "Migrants are charged €3,000 to €7,000 for irregular entry," Karner has said.
