Austria to build fence to monitor influx of refugees

Vienna has announced that it is to build a steel fence along its border with Slovenia to have better management of the influx of refugees, Alamatonline.com reported on Friday.

The two states are members of the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone. Chancellor Werner Faymann’s chief of staff, Josef Ostermayer, told reporters, “We are talking here about an ordered inflow and not a barrier.”

Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner added that her country had informed the EU about this measure. “Our Slovenian colleagues have asked us to not do this immediately,” she explained. “They have offered to increase border security measures by erecting a fence to create a safety corridor and to reinforce police patrols on the Slovenian side to prevent border crossings.”

This move came days after Slovenia had started building a fence along its border with Croatia, which lies at the start of the refugees’ route into Europe.