Austria's conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz opposes taking in any more people fleeing Afghanistan now that the Taliban have seized power, he said in remarks published on Sunday, Reuters reported. 

"I am clearly opposed to us now voluntarily taking in more people, and that will not happen during my chancellorship," Kurz said in an interview with TV channel Puls 24. Excerpts of the interview were released before it was broadcast later on Sunday.

Austria has more than 40,000 Afghan refugees, the second-biggest number in Europe after Germany, which has 148,000, according to data from the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR for 2020. Austria's population is nine times smaller than Germany's.

"I am not of the opinion that we should take in more people. Quite the opposite," Kurz said of Afghans fleeing their country. 

"Austria has made a disproportionately large contribution," he added, referring to the large number of Afghan refugees and asylum seekers already in the country.

He said people fleeing Afghanistan should stay in the region, adding that neighboring Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan had only taken in 14 and 13 Afghan refugees respectively, which matches the UNHCR data.