Austrian parliament suspends deportations of asylum seekers in apprenticeships

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill suspending deportations of asylum seekers while they are carrying out apprenticeships, countering the previous right-wing government's hard line on immigration.

Austria currently has a provisional government of civil servants that will be in place until a ruling coalition is formed. Conservatives led by Sebastian Kurz, who won the last parliamentary election, are in coalition talks with the Greens.

A central tenet of Kurz's previous coalition with the far-right Freedom Party was clamping down on illegal immigration and cutting benefits for new legal arrivals.

That proved popular in the wake of a European migration crisis in which Austria took in more than 1% of its population in asylum seekers. But more recent cases of well integrated asylum seekers working as apprentices and facing imminent deportation have generated public sympathy.

"These apprentices about whom we are speaking today, they have a deficiency in the eyes of our last government, namely they came to Austria as asylum seekers," Greens lawmaker Alma Zadic told the lower house of parliament during the debate on the bill.

Zadic is also a negotiator in the coalition talks, underlining the stark policy differences between the left-wing Greens and Kurz's People's Party (OVP) on immigration.

"These apprentices do excellent work. They are super-integrated, they support our businesses," said Zadic, whose rhetoric contrasted sharply with that of Kurz and his party, which often portray immigration as a burden and a threat.

Asylum seekers were allowed to start apprenticeships until September of last year, but only in areas where there is a labour shortage and no other suitable candidates for the position. There are currently around 800 asylum seekers in apprenticeships, many in the hospitality industry.

The bill was backed by the Social Democrats, the Greens, the liberal Neos and the OVP. The Freedom Party opposed it.

But the OVP has said that apprenticeships should not offer a "back door" to asylum.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Nick Macfie)