Slovenian border fence "necessary": Austrian FM

Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs Sebastian Kurz on Wednesday described Slovenia's decision to erect a fence at parts of its border to control the stem of migrants as "perfectly understandable" and "also necessary."

Kurz made the comments to the media after meeting with his Slovenian counterpart Karl Erjavec here, who informed him of the particulars of the border protection measures.

Erjavec said the barriers will not represent a locking down of the borders, but rather will serve to stem the flow of migrants, aid their protection, and will better allow for the registration of migrants as well as checks that they actually qualify for asylum, particularly at the outer EU borders.

He acknowledged however that such controls would not be watertight, particularly as the legal framework of the Schengen agreement "has no answer for a question of such dimensions."

Kurz said one of the primary goals at present should be to hinder those who have no chance of obtaining asylum, "to make it all the way to Central Europe."

"The great challenge is not the large number of war refugees, but those who at present see an opportunity to come to Europe," he said, adding that ideally the latter group should not make it further than Greece.

Kurz noted Austria was prepared to aid Slovenia should the need arise. Endit