On February 17, Austria announced that it was placing a daily limit of 3,200 on people entering its territory and that it would cap its acceptance of new asylum applications to 80 per day. The following day, police chiefs in Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia announced an agreement to jointly profile and register refugees and asylum-seekers at the border between Macedonia and Greece.
"Germany must finally provide clarity, otherwise refugees will continue to move towards Germany…. Considering the Austrian guideline, Germany could call a 400,000 refugees quota. As long as Germany does not do it, it is clear what will happened — the refugees will continue to believe that they will be let in," Faymann told the Austrian Kurier newspaper on Saturday.
According to Faymann, the European union should reduce the number of refugees "massively," and if all EU countries followed the example of Austria, Europe will be able to take a total of two million refugees.
Europe has been overwhelmed by hordes of migrants from Syria and the Middle East, but also other countries, seeking asylum primarily in the wealthier EU member states such as Germany and Austria. The Frontex EU border agency detected over 1.85 million illegal border crossings at the bloc last year.
