Austria to Expand Border Control Checks

Head of the Austria's Interior Ministry’s Department for Immigration Police, Crisis Management and Civil Protection, Johann Bezdeka, said that only 500 people a day were allowed to cross the border at the Spielfeld check point on the Austrian border.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Stricter border checks are currently introduced at only one check point in Austria, but the procedure will be expanded in the future, the head of the Interior Ministry’s Department for Immigration Police, Crisis Management and Civil Protection, Johann Bezdeka, said Thursday.

On January 16, Vienna suspended the Schengen Agreement and toughened border checks, introducing a special procedure on its border with Slovenia at the Spielfeld border crossing.

"The procedure involves document checks, if there are any. A refugee’s data is entered into a single database. We will expand the scope of this system to other points in the coming days," Bezdeka said in a Moscow-Vienna video link broadcast at the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency.

The Austrian official added that only 500 people a day were allowed to cross the border at the Spielfeld check point.

The measure aims to curb the refugee influx and deport refugees who have not filed an asylum request in Austria.

Europe continues to face a major refugee crisis, as hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers from conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa attempt to escape poverty and violence in their home countries and come to Europe, seeking refuge.