Austria came under fire
Tuesday as EU officials and leading human rights organizations
slammed its decision to build a barrier on its side of the
Brenner Pass on the border with Italy to keep asylum seekers
out.
"What is happening at the border between Italy and Austria
is not the right solution," EU Migration and Home Affairs
Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told the European Parliament
in Strasbourg.
Vienna last week threatened to shut down its side of the
Brenner Pass if migrant flows increased to "uncontrollable"
levels, saying asylum seeker arrivals in Italy were set to
double to 300,000 this year.
"We need more checks on those wanting to enter Europe,"
Austrian President Heinz Fischer said Monday, adding that the
Brenner Pass barrier will not include a wall or barbed wire.
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann on Tuesday defended the
move to beef up border controls as "desirable, necessary and
just".
He added that doing nothing and not putting limits of the
people arriving was "out of the question". The chancellor added:
"I take the responsibility".
Also on Tuesday, Amnesty International Italy said
Austria's move will create a bottleneck and a humanitarian
crisis such as the one taking place at the Greece-Macedonia
border, where thousands of refugees from Syria and other war
zones have languished in limbo in a makeshift camp at Idomeni
for months.
"Austria has decided to raise... an obstacle that will
create a situation similar to Idomeni," Amnesty International
Italy Director Gianni Rufini said.
"We will find ourselves with improvised camps and a
humanitarian crisis...that this should happen today on European
soil is disappointing and depressing".
Humanitarian group Doctors without Borders (MSF) said
border police at Idomeni have injured 200 people with tear gas
and another 37 with rubber bullets, which were being shot "at
children's height".
"At least three children were wounded by these
projectiles," Doctors Without Borders (MSF) President Loris De
Filippi told a press conference in Rome.
"It is an aberrant situation, created by Europe and left
unsolved by Europe".
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