Austria to extend border controls with Hungary, Slovenia

MOSCOW (Sputnik): Austrian authorities will extend border controls at its frontiers with Hungary and Slovenia for another six months until November 2019, Austrian Interior Minister Herbert Kickl said.

“Yes, we want to extend this control for another six months. We will send a letter to the European Commission next week,” Kickl told the Osterreich newspaper in an interview.

The minister also noted that Vienna was not “alone” in its intention, and other countries would follow suit.

This comes after in October 2018, Austria extended border controls with Hungary and Slovenia until May 2019.

According to the document prepared by Kickl, this decision was made due to the “insufficiently stable” situation that had developed in the country, in particular, because of a big number of asylum-seekers entering the country illegally.

Austria temporarily reinstated border controls with Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia in September 2015 at the outbreak of the migrant crisis in Europe.