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Italy and Austria were set for showdown talks on Thursday as Italian politicians and media reacted furiously to Vienna’s new anti-migrant measures that could close the border between the two countries.
Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka, who has vigorously defended the controversial package which was driven by a surge of the far right, was due in Rome to explain his government’s plans to Italian counterpart Angelo Alfano.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has warned that closing the famous Brenner Pass in the Alps would be a “flagrant breach of European rules” and is pushing the European Commission to force Austria to hold off on a move that many fear could come to symbolise the death of Europe’s Schengen system of open borders.
But the Vienna government is under intense domestic pressure to stem the volume of asylum seekers and other migrants arriving on its soil with the far-right surging in polls.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon hit out Thursday at what he called “increasingly restrictive” refugee policies in Europe, saying he was “alarmed by the growing xenophobia here” and elsewhere in Europe, in a speech to the Austrian parliament.
Wedged between the Italian and Balkan routes to northern Europe, Austria received 90,000 asylum requests last year, the second highest in per capita terms of any EU country.
Whole world’s burden
Legislation approved Wednesday by the Austrian parliament enables the government to respond to spikes in migrant arrivals by declaring a state of emergency which provides for asylum seekers to be turned away at border points.
“We cannot shoulder the whole world’s burden,” Sobotka said on Wednesday in defence of a law denounced by rights groups as a betrayal of Austria’s history as a place of refuge, most notably for dissidents fleeing the old Soviet bloc.
Some 250 police have been deployed at the Brenner Pass and preparations are under way for the construction of a 370-metre (yard) barrier which would be up to four metres (13 foot) high in places, that is due for completion by the end of May.
“Brenner: Vienna’s slap in the face,” was the headline in La Stampa daily, in a reflection of the outraged tone of virtually all the coverage.
The pass is a major transport link between southern and northern Europe with an average of 2,500 lorries and 15,000 cars using it every day.
Austria is preparing for a potential closure of the pass as fears grow that migrant arrivals in Italy could spike this summer as a result of the effective closure of the Balkan route into Europe.