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11,000 migrants cross Austrian border on Monday: red cross

Xinhua, September 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

11,000 migrants crossed the border into Austria on Monday, spokesperson for the Red Cross Austria Gerry Foitik told the Austria Press Agency on Tuesday.

Foitik said 8,600 persons had stayed in emergency quarters overnight into Tuesday, with 16,000 places currently available. He said the majority are as usual planning to travel onward to Germany, with connecting transport functioning well over the past two days.

This in turn has provided relief to emergency quarters in Austria, he added.

He said he assumed the traffic would continue in similar numbers until Friday, but would increase on the weekend.

While there have not been any "spikes" in the number of migrants arriving up to now, he acknowledged this could change at any time, which the higher number of available places at emergency quarters can counteract against.

He said however should the duration of the situation continue on in the coming weeks, more full time workers will have to take over from volunteers.

The large influx of people has also led to an increase in the number of asylum applications made, the Interior Ministry confirming Tuesday that an an average of over 400 applications were made in the past week, an increase of 47 percent over the week before.

A main reason for the increase is believed to be Germany's tightening of border controls. Endit