Each year, 15,000 prisoners, mostly refugees on their way to a third country or applicants for asylum, spend up to six months in Austrian jails while waiting for deportation. The selection process for deportees or those who are granted a more or less semilegal status is decided by criteria which are not always transparent: the determination of identity, the human rights situation in the home country, the willingness of the home country's authorities to repatriate the refugee, and the Austrian authority's sense of responsibility. More and more foreigners are being deported, even those facing execution. However, some cannot be deported because they lack identification papers. They live as illegals and could be arrested at any time. For most, their release from prison means a life on the streets without financial means or a transit visa, and the start of an odyssey from one European prison to another. "National Border Ahead" is a film about prisoners waiting for deportation and the many conflicts which affect their personal fates, the efforts of refugee organizations, the problems of the affected authorities, and the fears of the Austrian population.