Austria prolongs checks on four EU borders
Austria will extend border controls along its borders with the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia for another six months. The government says the measures are needed to fight people-smuggling networks and further reduce irregular migration. The extension will run until March 2027.
The controls will focus less on permanent checkpoints and more on broad, flexible security operations across the border region. The Austrian army will also continue supporting police operations in Burgenland, the eastern province bordering Hungary and Slovakia, according to ORF News.
The Interior Ministry said the measures had been coordinated with neighbouring countries. Officials pointed to the latest figures from Burgenland as evidence that the current approach was working. Only two people were arrested there last week for illegally crossing the border. The last asylum application following such an arrest was recorded in Burgenland on 9 July.
Austria is not alone in carrying out checks inside the passport-free Schengen area. Germany, the Netherlands, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Poland and Spain are also currently conducting controls at some of their internal borders.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner of the Austrian People’s Party said the new European asylum pact would strengthen the protection of the EU’s external borders. However, he argued that additional measures were still necessary inside Austria.
“The goal remains to take smugglers and criminals out of circulation while placing as little burden as possible on commuters,” Karner said.
Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger of the liberal NEOS party said the new system would free up resources for commuters and businesses. Those resources, she added, could then be used where they were most needed for national security.
“We are also taking even stronger action against people-smuggling and illegal border crossings, nationally but above all at the European level,” she said.
State Secretary Jörg Leichtfried of the Social Democratic Party described the extension as an important step in managing irregular migration. At the same time, he stressed that all measures must be targeted, lawful and free from general suspicion.
