Slovenia, the main entry point into Austria, also said it was ready to build a fence, meaning the two countries will follow Hungary in trying to seal their frontiers, thus threatening to block the land route used by migrants from the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa now invading Europe.
Advertisement
Germany has accused Austria of pushing refugees and migrants across the border late at night.
Germany, the country of choice of numerous people fleeing regions torn by war and hardship, moved as well to reduce the migrant load.
Meanwhile European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker slammed EU member states for providing less than half of the guards pledged to the bloc’s Frontex border agency in migrant hotspots Greece and Italy.
While EU rules do allow the temporary re-imposition of border controls when faced with massive influxes, the new efforts send a worrying political message that countries are no longer committed to open borders, said Camino Mortera-Martinez, a research fellow at the Centre for European Reform in Brussels.
“The fact is that if Austria receives 11,000 people in Spielfeld on a daily basis, Bavaria can not say that it will just process up to 50 people an hour at its border”.
At least 3 migrants drowned and 242 were saved when a boat sank off the Greek island of Lesbos recently.
Austria on Wednesday announced plans to erect border barriers of its own.
“The Schengen border protected by Slovenia is part of Europe’s core external boundary, which other countries understand, so they have begun sending reinforcements”.
More than 700,000 people have reached Europe via the Mediterranean in 2015, according to the worldwide Organisation for Migration, with many hoping to make it to Germany, the continent’s economic powerhouse.
“It would be good to stop the migrant flows before they reach the European Union”, said the Greek foreign minister, Nikos Kotzias.
Slovenia and Austria are also considering measures to tighten their borders and put more control on the influx of migrants.
Swedish authorities say 14 refugees are refusing to leave a bus in northern Sweden, protesting that they do not want to stay in chalets in a remote and cold part of Sweden.
Austria has been criticised by authorities in Slovenia for the pace at which it is accepting refugees and earlier this week it briefly threatened to build a fence along its border, but police have been drafted in from across the country to deal with the numbers of arrivals.
Rescuers continued to search the rough waters for more survivors, and the coast guard said it remains unclear how many people were on the boat when it went under.
Almost 105,000 people have entered Slovenia in less than two weeks since Hungary sealed its border with Croatia.
At the Austrian-German border, diplomatic spats were low on the migrants’ list of worries. Also, a fence has a gate, ‘ she said Wednesday.
Advertisement
The leaders of the European Union had met on the weekend to discuss the migrant crisis, but appeared to have failed to come up with a solution that is acceptable to all.
