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Austria planning "technical barriers" at crowded migrant border crossing: interior minister

Xinhua, October 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

Austrian Minister of the Interior Johanna Mikl-Leitner on Tuesday said that a "technical barriers" of the border at the southern town of Spielfeld, where massive numbers of migrants have been crossing via Slovenia, is being planned.

"It is not about fully closing the borders, it is that the situation could worsen,"Mikl-Leitner said in an interview with the Kronen Zeitung.

Each day there is an increasing number of migrants coming from the south, but a decreasing number being able to continue north, typically to preferred destination Germany, Mikl-Leitner said prior to her visit to the town.

While the situation has been manageable up to now, it could worsen further in the near future, something that is strongly dependent on the weather conditions, she said.

The minister also noted that some groupings of migrants have been acting aggressively, prompting the need for an orderly, controlled situation for entering the country at the Spielfeld site.

The plan, if it were to go ahead, would involve some construction work and the implementation of the technical barriers would stretch for several kilometres along the border in both directions.

Mikl-Leitner would not confirm when the closure would take place, noting that the concept is in the planning stages, and otherwise said that overall Austria will require 2000 additional police personnel. Endit