Austrian Army Deployed to Halt Migrants Transit through Germany

Local Editor

Austria is set to use its army to stop refugees intending to transit through Germany and not apply for asylum there, as hundreds are being rejected at the German border. More than 1,000 migrants with forged IDs are being turned around at the Austrian border each week.

The new regulations, issued by the Austrian Defense Ministry, came into effect Saturday in which migrants coming to Austria to travel through Germany and beyond will be denied access and sent back home.

Relatively, Slovenia is expected to resort to similar measures in order to avoid becoming a refugee bottleneck.

In the context, Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner stated that: "only those who want asylum in Germany are being let through, and those who want to travel onward are sent back."

Besides, the soldiers' presence will be made "clearly visible" to deter migrants trying to find illegal ways into Austria.

Over 3,000 migrants who arrived under false identities were sent back, border officials reported.

However, Austria has been engaged in trilateral talks with Germany and Slovenia aimed at finding new ways to manage the refugee and migrant influx.

The negotiations went well and have so far resulted in tightened border control checks to stop illegal immigration, according to Mikl-Leitner.

The whole process started by Germany, which since the beginning of January has been turning away hundreds of migrants with fake IDs heading to Sweden or Denmark. Those people then turned up either in neighboring Austria or Slovenia.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team