Austria to build fence on Slovenia border

Those still at large are being sought under worldwide arrest warrants.

Migrants and refugees switched to Slovenia as a gateway to Western Europe after Hungary sealed off its border with Croatia.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the move would allow Sweden to turn people away at the border. Greece has a short fence with Turkey as well, finding that a river was not enough of a deterrent.

The 3.7-kilometre fence, which will take around six weeks to put in place, will be the first of its kind between two Schengen countries in Europe.

“Saving Schengen is a race against time and we are determined to win that race”, Tusk said at the end of an EU-Africa summit in Malta.

An worldwide migration monitoring and response agency says the influx of migrants and refugees into Europe has slowed in the past week.

He did not clarify what the forces would do in Greece, which nearly all the migrants reach by sea in small and often-dangerous boats.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Friday that statistics gathered by authorities so far show that migrants are on average just as likely or unlikely to commit offenses as other parts of the German population. The largely Catholic nation fears it could be overwhelmed by mostly Muslim refugees if neighboring Austria and Germany further west decide to stop the massive flow from the Balkans.

The president of Niger – a major transit route for Africans heading to lawless Libya in the hopes of crossing the Mediterranean to Europe – was cautious about opening the floodgates to returns. The fence will be about 4 km and will be placed at the busiest refugee border crossing with Slovenia.

Slovenian police said almost 12,000 people entered the country from Croatia between Thursday and Friday morning, increasing the total passing through the country to 196,000, the Associated Press reported. Austrian interior minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner insisted the “fence conforms to the Schengen accord”, adding that it was part of temporary measures aimed at “channelling” the human flow.

Croatia says the fence that Slovenia is putting up to stem the flow of refugees has entered Croatian territory in seven locations. The plans for the fence means extra materials will be held in locked storage near the border, meaning barbed wire could be deployed within 48 hours in case of an emergency, reports Austrian daily Kronen Zeitung. “We reacted the same way and Hungary removed the wire”, she said. “We expect the same kind of reaction from the Slovenian side”. Both countries are already locked in an old territorial dispute dating from the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Meanwhile, ahead of a Group of 20 summit this weekend in Turkey, Amnesty global has called on the attending nations to come up with a concrete plan to resettle refugees and finance their humanitarian needs.

EU and African leaders on Thursday began a second round of talks in Malta, with the Europeans looking to seal migration agreements with individual African countries.

Despite the influx, European Union nations have been slow to move on the ground.

“It is easy to say that the repression is not a solution, but what is to be done when they enter your house one after another?” he said.

The European Commission has formally authorised the temporary re-imposition of border controls in Germany and Sweden. “All indications and experience suggest that the overwhelming majority of these migrants will vote for the left once they become citizens, so future leftist voters are being imported to Europe”, Orban said.

Sweden’s prime minister is defending his decision to reintroduce border controls, saying it is no longer possible to properly control the country’s borders.