Migrant pressure grows at Austrian border
Austrian Foreign Minister says unless Austria reintroduces border checks, it would be "overwhelmed within a few days"
Migrants sit at the far end of a platform at Vienna's train station (Westbahnhof) in Vienna on September 13, 2015. Austria's state-owned rail company announced Sunday it will suspend train services with Germany as Europe tries to cope with a massive surge of refugee arrivals. The announcement came as Germany said it was reinstating "temporary" controls at the border with Austria. PHOTO: AFP
VIENNA:
Tensions rose in Austria Monday as thousands of migrants entered from Hungary, unable to travel onwards to Germany after Berlin reimposed border controls.
Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said that unless Austria copied Germany and reintroduced border checks itself, the country would be "completely overwhelmed within a few days."
"We have to be aware that if we leave open (the borders), every day we will get 10,000 people who would then stay in Austria. Our geographical situation is that we are the last country, the last attractive target country, in the chain before Germany," Kurz said late Sunday.
Read: Austria to deploy army to help with migrant influx
There appeared to be a split in the Austrian government with Chancellor Werner Faymann -- from a different party to Kurz -- saying Sunday that there would be no systematic controls, only spot checks. Faymann is due to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Tuesday, Faymann's office said.
Overnight around 4,500 migrants entered Austria at the main border crossing point at Nickelsdorf with police saying they expected thousands more during Monday. A further 3,000 also crossed at Heiligenkreuz near Graz, where police said around 500 more were arriving every hour.
Read: Germany reinstates border controls over refugee surge
In recent weeks, tens of thousands of migrants have travelled up the western Balkans from Greece into Hungary and then Austria, all but a handful continuing to Germany -- which has relaxed asylum rules for Syrians -- and also Sweden. A record 5,809 entered Hungary on Sunday, police said Monday, smashing the previous day's record of 4,330.
The sharp increase came ahead of harsh new Hungarian laws coming into force Tuesday under which people entering the EU country illegally can be jailed for up to three years. Migrants told an AFP correspondent on the Hungarian border that buses were taking them straight to train station at Szeged to go to Budapest, and not to registration camp.
Tensions rose in Austria Monday as thousands of migrants entered from Hungary, unable to travel onwards to Germany after Berlin reimposed border controls.
Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said that unless Austria copied Germany and reintroduced border checks itself, the country would be "completely overwhelmed within a few days."
"We have to be aware that if we leave open (the borders), every day we will get 10,000 people who would then stay in Austria. Our geographical situation is that we are the last country, the last attractive target country, in the chain before Germany," Kurz said late Sunday.
Read: Austria to deploy army to help with migrant influx
There appeared to be a split in the Austrian government with Chancellor Werner Faymann -- from a different party to Kurz -- saying Sunday that there would be no systematic controls, only spot checks. Faymann is due to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Tuesday, Faymann's office said.
Overnight around 4,500 migrants entered Austria at the main border crossing point at Nickelsdorf with police saying they expected thousands more during Monday. A further 3,000 also crossed at Heiligenkreuz near Graz, where police said around 500 more were arriving every hour.
Read: Germany reinstates border controls over refugee surge
In recent weeks, tens of thousands of migrants have travelled up the western Balkans from Greece into Hungary and then Austria, all but a handful continuing to Germany -- which has relaxed asylum rules for Syrians -- and also Sweden. A record 5,809 entered Hungary on Sunday, police said Monday, smashing the previous day's record of 4,330.
The sharp increase came ahead of harsh new Hungarian laws coming into force Tuesday under which people entering the EU country illegally can be jailed for up to three years. Migrants told an AFP correspondent on the Hungarian border that buses were taking them straight to train station at Szeged to go to Budapest, and not to registration camp.