Austrian Border Controls Comply With Schengen Rules

Johann Bezdeka, the head of Interior Ministry’s Department for Immigration Police, Crisis Management and Civil Protection, said that Austria imposed limited controls within the boundaries set by the Schengen agreement, this decision complies with the Schengen rules.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The temporary border controls imposed by Austria on its borders with other Schengen member states do not violate the deal on EU’s borderless area, a senior official with the Austrian Interior Ministry said Thursday.

Tighter controls were reinstated on the Austrian borders in the wake of a huge inflow of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa. They are set to expire in May.

"Austria did not suspend the Schengen [agreement]," Johann Bezdeka, the head of Interior Ministry’s Department for Immigration Police, Crisis Management and Civil Protection, said in a Moscow-Vienna video link broadcast at the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency.

"Austria has imposed limited controls within the boundaries set by the Schengen agreement," Bezdeka stressed. "It is a different thing, you cannot say the entire Schengen pact has been suspended."

Austria has been vigorously screening immigrants crossings its borders, turning back those who do not plan to stay or travel north to Germany to apply for asylum there. Similar controls have been in place in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and France.