The Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann said on Sunday that that the Schengen agreement on the free movement of persons between most EU countries without identity checks has been 'temporarily suspended.' The Austrian Defence Ministry announced on Saturday (16 January) that it would be deploying troops to stop refugees who want to transit through to Germany.
The Slovak government hasn't underestimated the risk of migrants, unlike other countries have. Prime Minister Robert Fico said that on Saturday on RTVS's politics talk show 'Sobotne Dialogy'. "The migrants were very well informed that if they went via Slovakia en route to Germany, they would be detained and immediately deported from our country", said Robert Fico. He continued that if another government brought migrants in Slovakia, there would be a ghetto. According to opposition Most-Hid chairman Béla Bugár, the Government's position on the issue is inappropriate. "Here and now in Slovakia we're not concerned about migration, because migrants are not here and they even don't want to come here", said Béla Bugár. He pointed to the fact that in one quarter of 2015, from July to October, only 15 people applied for asylum in Slovakia. "They are more afraid of Slovakia than Slovakia is afraid of them", concluded the opposition politician.
In an interview in Österreich, the Austrian chancellor said that with the new measures introduced at Austria's borders, the existence of "the whole EU is in question". It was reported at the weekend that Germany is in favour of a mini-Schengen, comprising itself, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and the Netherlands, in order to teach Italy and Greece a lesson. Last week, other Schengen countries, including Norway, Sweden and Denmark, also temporarily suspended the Schengen agreement and restored border control measures at their national borders.
Source: euractive.com, TASR
