Austria, Slovakia join Germany in temporary border controls

(ANSA) - Rome, September 14 - Austria and Slovakia announced Monday that they will follow Germany's lead and institute temporary border checks at their border crossings, in response to the influx of immigrants into both countries, said Austria's Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner and Slovakia's Interior Minister Robert Kalinak.
    Germany closed its borders starting Sunday for 12 hours in order to reinstate border controls, following a weekend that saw 19,100 immigrants enter Munich through Austria from Syria.
    Meanwhile, the Republic of Macedonia - a landlocked nation bordered by Kosovo, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Albania - registered 6,000 refugees who crossed the Greek border into the country in a span of just 24 hours and heading for northern Europe, government sources said.
    The Serbian Red Cross said it expects the immigrant influx to continue to increase, and predicts that at least 20,000 immigrants will reach Serbia, a country which has already been crossed by 130,000 immigrants since the beginning of 2015.