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Austria has reinstated border checks with neighbouring Slovakia, becoming the latest central European country to suspend the terms of Europe’s Schengen free movement area because of a rise in illegal immigration.
The move is part of a “co-ordinated action” with the Czech Republic and Poland that came into force at midnight, said Austria’s interior minister, Gerhard Karner. It will initially last for 10 days.
Austria has already introduced controls at its frontiers with Schengen members Hungary and Slovenia, meaning that the latest measures have thrown up a 1,500km hard border through central Europe.
Germany and France have also begun ad hoc checks at their own borders, complicating free movement at the centre of Schengen.
One-third of Schengen states have now enacted border controls.
“The occasional checks carried out so far in our border area will be intensified into [fixed] border point controls,” said Karner at a press conference in Vienna.
“We do this because we know from previous experience that after such checks [are imposed elsewhere] smugglers react very quickly and change routes,” said Karner, explaining that Austria could not afford to become a weak point of entry.
Austria’s ruling conservative Peoples’ Party is championing a tough line on immigration, not least because of its wavering fortunes ahead of next October’s elections. The populist rightwing Freedom Party, its main rival, is far ahead of it in the polls and on course to secure the largest share of the vote, thanks largely to its strong anti-immigration stance.
Austria controversially vetoed accession to the Schengen zone of Romania and Bulgaria in December last year over rising immigration concerns. Bucharest responded last month with a threat to sue Vienna for damages.
Austrian diplomats said their country is on the “frontline” of illegal immigration. Austria had the highest number per capita of asylum applications in the EU last year. Three quarters of them were not previously registered as having entered another EU member state, even though Austria has no external borders. Under the bloc’s rules, EU countries are responsible for registering illegal migrants and asylum seekers must claim asylum in the first EU state they set foot in.
Slovakia has recently become a major transit route for migrants to reach Austria, Germany and other wealthier EU member states.
After winning last weekend’s elections there, former premier Robert Fico and his Smer party are now discussing the formation of a ruling coalition with two other anti-migration parties. Late on Wednesday the Slovak caretaker government announced restrictions on its border with Hungary to stop a recent influx of migrants, pre-empting one of Fico’s election pledges.
In Germany, too, immigration is becoming an increasingly sensitive topic, with the government under pressure from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party that has been polling at nearly 22 per cent — ahead of all three parties in the ruling coalition.
Last month chancellor Olaf Scholz accused the Polish government of waving through migrants. The claim was immediately rebuked by Poland’s ruling rightwing politicians as unwanted meddling by Germany in domestic politics ahead of an election on October 15. In that campaign, the Polish opposition is trying to use a broadening visa scandal to debunk the government’s claim that it has secured Poland’s borders against illegal migrants.
