EU tells Austria daily cap on asylum applicants against law

The European Union's migration chief warned Austria on Thursday that its plans to cap migrant numbers would break the bloc's laws.

Austria, on the migrant route from Turkey via Greece and the Balkans to Germany, said this week it would let in no more than 3,200 people a day and also cap asylum claims at 80 a day from Friday..

"What the Austrians have decided is not according to European laws," European Union Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told Reuters.

He said he would send the Austrian government a letter "telling them that what they decided to do is not compatible to the European legislation. The Austrians are obliged to accept asylum applications without putting a cap."

Around 700,000 migrants, many of them fleeing fighting in Syria, Afghanistan and other conflict zones, entered Austria last year, and about 90,000 of them applied for asylum there.

The majority try to head further north to Germany in what has become the continent's greatest migration crisis in decades.

"It is true to say that Austria is under huge pressure," Avramopoulos said. "It is true they are overwhelmed. But, on the other hand, there are some principles and laws that all countries must respect and apply," Avramopoulos said.

In his letter to Austria's Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Avramopoulos urged Vienna to reconsider the move, officials said.

The European Union, keen to preserve its cherished Schengen free-travel zone, is trying to halt a tightening of border and migration policies across the bloc.