Austria starts barricading Italy border

(ANSA) - Bolzano, April 11 - Austria has begun barricading its side of the Brenner Pass at the border with Italy, sources said Monday.
    Austria has repeatedly said it will not allow asylum seekers in and that it fears an onslaught from Italy, which has an open door policy to people seeking international protection. Guardrails have been taken down and road signs will be changed as a 250-meter barrier will cross both the highway and the state road, Tyrolean Police Chief Helmut Tomac told the Austria Press Agency (APA).
    Traffic checks will take place in a parking lot north of the border beginning at the end of May, with the interior minister to decide the exact date.
    Italian and Austrian interior ministers Angelino Alfano and Johanna Mikl-Leitner said after talks in Rome Friday that the two countries had agreed "to intensify bilateral and operational collaboration in the monitoring and control of the joint border with the strategic aim of guaranteeing the fluidity of the Brenner Pass and safeguarding the freedom of movement envisaged by Schengen". Austria on Thursday threatened to shut the Brenner Pass if migrant flows increased to "uncontrollable" levels and said asylum seeker arrivals in Italy were set to double to 300,000 this year.
   Also on Monday, the head of the second-largest European Parliament caucus slammed Austria's "pointless, negative, unacceptable" move. Building "a preventive wall is completely unacceptable" said MEP Gianni Pittella, leader of the EP Socialists and Democrats caucus. "Not only does it violate Schengen... but it shows a preference for barricading oneself within small national fortresses instead of working for a European solution".