“The situation here is especially dynamic”, Mikl-Leitner explained in Spielfeld. At its summer peak perhaps 5,000 people crossed Austria on a given day. “But we also need to prepare ourselves for 12,000”.
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Over 680,000 asylum seekers fleeing war and deprivation in the Middle East, Africa and Asia have poured into Europe this year, with Slovenia and Austria now bearing the brunt of a migrant tide along a corridor towards the north west from the Balkans. He says Afghanistan’s government agrees with Berlin that citizens should stay and help rebuild the country.
The land route into the European Union has shifted from Hungary to Slovenia since Hungary erected a fence along its border with Serbia last month.
It has been observed that Slovenia is the main entry point for migrants heading for Austria.
Interior minister says border control is needed to ensure “orderly, controlled entry”.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is touting German industrial strengths on a trip to China as European countries jostle to court President Xi Jinping for his country’s business.
“It will be a coordinated effort, which will look different from the current situation where we have a totally open border, where anyone can walk on an autobahn, where they can do anything”. From there, they go to Austria with many continuing on to Germany.
Bavaria’s state premier Horst Seehofer had complained on Tuesday that “Austria’s behaviour is hurting our neighbourly relations”. Britain was the first major Western country to get behind China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, paving the way for other European Union countries including Germany and causing friction with the U.S. Austria is under enormous pressure not only from its own population but from neighboring Bavaria to stop – or at least dramatically stem the flow – of asylum seekers.
A spokesman for the Austrian chancellor said Tuesday that Vienna was trying to come to an arrangement with Germany on the issue of refugees.
Bavarian leader Seehofer threatened to close Bavaria’s border with Austria and gave the chancellor an ultimatum.
“We can not and should not deal with each other this way”, he told the Passauer Neue Presse.
Faymann, who has been particularly critical of right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, likening his treatment of migrants to Nazi-era deportations, said Austria’s measures were not comparable.
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Commerce said the Chinese government would contribute 100 million yuan (HK$122 million) in humanitarian aid to Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
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While Slovenian & Austrian administrations appeared to be discussing building fences to curtail the flow, Germany, the country most migrants prefer, may have already taken precautionary steps to reduce the migrant load.
