Slovenia said in a statement released by its interior ministry it had informed neighbouring Croatia, the next country along the migrant trail, of its decision to bring in tougher border controls.
Advertisement
“We have done this and I believe we have set an example that Germany will also set shortly”, he added.
That system has caused backlogs and delays in Austria.
Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner on Wednesday said that Austria had no choice but to act because there was no European solution yet in place.
The Austrian steps aimed at strengthening border controls are likely to provoke the same measures in West Balkan countries – a “domino effect” of border clampdowns as Mikl-Leitner described it. Officials in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia repeatedly warned they would close their borders if their neighbors did it.
It has, however, taken in a similar number of asylum seekers to Germany in proportion to its far smaller population, and the coalition government has said it will not be able to cope if the influx continues unabated.
“Slovenia will follow (Austria’s) quotas with new measures”, Interior Minister Vesna Gyorkos Znidar told a news conference in Ljubljana.
“We must act now”, he added.
The highway that runs through the pass is one of the busiest commercial thoroughfares between Italy and northern Europe, though it was not clear whether Austria’s stepped-up controls would include the highway.
But in the face of the plan’s sluggish implementation, Vienna has also joined the so-called “Visegrad Four” – Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic – in wanting tighter border controls inside the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone.
Merkel on Tuesday strongly criticised Austria’s proposal: “Do we really want to give up already and close the Greek-Macedonian-Bulgarian border, with all the consequences this would have for Greece and the European Union as a whole?”
“The aim is to secure the order and stability of our country”. “We must put on the brakes, step by step”.
“There is a consensus with the Visegrad countries that, as the protection of the outer borders is failing, it’s become necessary to make safe the borders within” the EU, Faymann said.
The daily limit on asylum claims is in line with Austria’s announcement last month that it would only take in 37,500 asylum seekers this year – sharply down from the 90,000 it accepted in 2015.
“Plan A isn’t enforceable as Austria is proposing it, and it won’t be this Thursday and Friday”, Faymann told reporters after the weekly government meeting in Vienna.
Since January, the country of almost nine million has already received 11,000 asylum claims, or around 250 a day.
Advertisement
From Turkey, many undertake a risky sea crossing to Greece, from where they fearless a grueling journey along the Balkans in the hope of reaching Germany or Sweden.
