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Europe
Austria plans fence to stop migrants at major border crossing with Italy
2016-04-28
[REUTERS] Austria outlined plans on Wednesday to erect a fence at a border crossing with Italia that is a vital link between northern and southern Europe, escalating a stand-off between the two states over how to handle a migration crisis.

Migrants are crossing the Mediterranean from Africa to Italia in growing numbers and Austria has said Rome must stop them traveling onwards towards northern Europe or it will have to introduce border controls at the Brenner Pass in the Alps.

But with Austrian preparations for controls already under way, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said Austria's move was "shamelessly against European rules, as well as being against history, against logic and against the future".

Austrian police in the Alpine province of Tyrol, which borders on northern Italia, presented plans for the installation of facilities at Brenner to inspect vehicles and process migrants colonists, in the event formal controls are introduced.

Building work on some of the facilities at Brenner began two weeks ago but their scale was not immediately known.

Austria Adopts One of EU's Toughest Asylum Laws amid Far-Right Surge

[AnNahar] The Austrian parliament on Wednesday adopted one of Europe's toughest asylum laws, as the country's politicians struggle to halt the surging far-right which is leading in presidential polls. The hotly-disputed bill, which passed by 98 to 67, allows the government to declare a "state of emergency" if the migrant numbers suddenly rise and reject most asylum-seekers directly at the border, including from war-torn countries like Syria.

Rights groups, religious leaders and opposition parties have condemned the legislation -- the latest in a string of hardline measures against migrants colonists -- as violating international human rights
...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state...
conventions.

But Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka insisted Austria had no other choice as long as "so many other European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
members fail to do their part" to stop the influx.

"We cannot shoulder the whole world's burden," he said.

Wedged between Europe's two main refugee routes - the Balkans and Italia -- Austria received around 90,000 asylum requests in 2015, the second-highest in the bloc on a per capita basis.

The crisis has boosted populist fringe parties across Europe, pressuring traditionally centrist governments to adopt a much firmer stance on migrants colonists.

- 'Dangerous tools' -
Under Austria's new law, the government can now declare an emergency if the migrant flow threatens the country's "national security". Border authorities will then only grant access to refugees facing safety threats in a neighboring transit country or whose relatives are already in Austria. Some groups including minors and pregnant women will however be exempt from the rule.

The restrictions are similar to tough rules introduced by the right-wing government in neighboring Hungary last year.

"These are extremely dangerous tools that are being sharpened here, especially if they fall into the wrong hands," warned the leader of the small NEOS opposition party, Mathias Strolz, ahead of the vote.

It comes after the candidate of the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), Norbert Hofer, sent shock waves through the political establishment by winning the first round of a presidential ballot on Sunday.

The two candidates of the ruling centrist coalition failed to even make it into the runoff on May 22.

The FPOe also looks set to do well in the next scheduled general election in 2018.

Trying to stem voter desertion to the far-right, Austria's government erected border fences and introduced an annual cap on asylum-seekers.

It also pressured other countries along the Balkan trail to close their frontiers earlier this year, effectively shutting the route to migrants colonists.

The clampdown left some 54,000 migrants colonists currently stranded in Greece.

It also pushed people smugglers to seek out new routes into Europe, including via Italia, which has so far this year seen 26,000 migrants colonists land on its shores after setting off from Libya.
Posted by:Fred

#1  Obama Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said Austria's move was "shamelessly against European rules, as well as being against history, against logic and against the future".

sounds familiar
Posted by: Frank G   2016-04-28 08:52  

00:00