Courtesy of Mish.
Two months ago, Austria’s chancellor Werner Faymann criticized Hungary for building a fence along its border.
Faymann proclaimed “To think that you can solve something with a fence, I believe this is wrong.”
Today, Austria Announces Fence on Slovenia Border to Slow Refugee Flows.
Europe’s migration crisis escalated on Wednesday after Austria said it would build a fence on its border with Slovenia in a bid to create an “orderly” inflow of refugees and migrants into the country.
The move marks potentially the most serious fracture in the EU’s response to the crisis, which has seen nearly 700,000 people enter Europe since the start of the year, as it would mark the first time a physical barrier is built between two members of the continent’s passport-free Schengen zone.
Johanna Mikl-Leitner, interior minister, insisted that Austria would not totally shut its border with Slovenia. Instead, the plan involved “fixed facilities in the area of border crossings”, she said.
“It’s not just about a fence . . . it is about all technical possibilities to ensure a controlled, orderly influx into our country,” she told Ö1, Austria’s national broadcaster, adding that the plan was not “at all” an attempt to close the border.
Despite repeated meetings, leaders have so far failed to come up with a unified response. While some national capitals have introduced strict border controls, others have opted to let migrants and refugees straight through, despite EU rules dictating that they should be processed when they arrive.
The crisis has strained relations Germany and Austria which burst into the open on Wednesday.
In a significant toughening of German rhetoric towards the crisis, Thomas de Maizière, interior minister, on Wednesday blamed Austria for accelerating the movement of refugees and putting the German authorities under extreme pressure.
“Austria’s behaviour in all this in the last few days has not been in order,” said Mr de Maizière, immediately after a cabinet meeting in Berlin chaired by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
He added: “We have had to complain that the refugees have been taken to specific places without any warning and after dusk and from there they have come to the German border with preparation and without any warning.” …
