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REFUGEE CRISIS

IMMIGRATION

Austria deploys army to help with refugee crisis

Around 2,200 members of the Austrian military are to be deployed to help with the influx of thousands of refugees - including to carry out border checks - the government said on Monday.

Austria deploys army to help with refugee crisis
Refugees waiting at Nickelsdorf station. File photo: APA

“The police and the Austrian interior ministry need support, they need support from the Austrian army,” Chancellor Werner Faymann said in Vienna a day after Germany reintroduced border controls for migrants, leaving thousands of people effectively stranded in Austria.

“The main focus of the support will be in domestic humanitarian help, but it will also assist in a strengthening of border controls where necessary,” Faymann told reporters.

Faymann said that the decisions are “a clear signal (to the international community) that Austria and Germany cannot solve the world's asylum question alone.”

Border crossing closed

Meanwhile, the Austrian-Hungarian border crossing at Nickelsdorf on the A4 motorway has been temporarily closed, as Austrian police expect a large influx of refugees from Hungary and have said the situation could escalate to an emergency.

More than 16,000 people have crossed the border from Hungary since Saturday afternoon. Police spokesman Gerald Koller said that up to 10,000 refugees are expected to arrive in Heiligenkreuz in Burgenland on Monday, and that they do not have the resources to cope with such a large number.

Police have set up metal barriers to contain the refugees, who are arriving on buses every hour. Around 7,500 refugees are in Nickelsdorf, waiting to travel on to Vienna.

More than 5,000 refugees spent Sunday night in Vienna, police spokesman Patrick Maierhofer said. Around 1,100 refugees were reported to be at Westbahnhof station on Monday morning. During the last 24 hours 131 people have filed asylum applications in Vienna.

Röszke 'being closed'

There are unconfirmed reports that Hungary is about to close a refugee camp at Röszke, where up to 80,000 people are currently being held. The camp is 386 km from Austria and there are fears that the refugees will set off on foot for Austria.

People wishing to travel from Austria to Hungary on Monday are advised to use the border crossing on the A6 motorway, by way of Kittsee or Deutschkreutz.

Train services between Austria and Germany resumed on Monday morning, after being suspended for 12 hours on Sunday.

In recent weeks, tens of thousands of migrants have travelled up the western Balkans from Greece into Hungary and then Austria, all but a handful continuing to Germany — which has relaxed asylum rules for Syrians — and also Sweden.

FAR-RIGHT

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Radical Austrian nationalist Martin Sellner has been banned from entering Germany, it emerged on Tuesday, days after he was deported from Switzerland.

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Sellner, a leader of Austria’s white pride Identitarian Movement, posted a video of himself on X, formerly Twitter, reading out a letter he said was from the city of Potsdam.

A spokeswoman for the city authorities confirmed to AFP that an EU citizen had been served with a “ban on their freedom of movement in Germany”.

The person can no longer enter or stay in Germany “with immediate effect” and could be stopped by police or deported if they try to enter the country, the spokeswoman said, declining to name the individual for privacy reasons.

READ ALSO: Who is Austria’s far-right figurehead banned across Europe?

“We have to show that the state is not powerless and will use its legitimate means,” Mike Schubert, the mayor of Potsdam, said in a statement.

Sellner caused an uproar in Germany after allegedly discussing the Identitarian concept of “remigration” with members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) at a meeting in Potsdam in November.

Reports of the meeting sparked a huge wave of protests against the AfD, with tens of thousands of Germans attending demonstrations across the country.

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Swiss police said Sunday they had prevented a hundred-strong far-right gathering due to be addressed by Sellner, adding that he had been arrested and deported.

The Saturday meeting had been organised by the far-right Junge Tat group, known for its anti-immigration and anti-Islamic views.

The group is also a proponent of the far-right white nationalist Great Replacement conspiracy theory espoused by Sellner’s Identitarian Movement.

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