SHARE
COPY LINK

IMMIGRATION

Plans underway for second refugee protest

Plans are underway for a second demonstration against Austria’s border controls to take place at the Brenner pass between Italy and Austria, with organisers saying they expect more protesters to turn up this time.

Plans underway for second refugee protest
JAN HETFLEISCH/EPA

The first rally that took place at the beginning of April saw around 800 pro-refugee demonstrators march to the Brenner border to protest Austria’s increasingly hardline approach to migrants and refugees.

The initially peaceful protest ended violently after around 50 participants clashed with police, leaving five officers injured.

Austria has introduced a run of measures in recent months to stem the number of refugees crossing its borders, including putting up fences and posting soldiers at its border stations.

Brenner has become a recent focal point of the Austrian government’s anti-migrant policy, which has seen it introduce a run of measures in recent months to stem the number of refugees crossing its borders.

As well as placing an upper limit of 37,500 asylum applications it is prepared to accept this year, the Interior Ministry have also being raising barriers at its borders, with building work starting this week on a 250-metre-long anti-migrant barrier over the Brenner motorway and main road.

The next demonstration at Brenner, organised by left-wing parties in northern Italy’s region of South Tyrol, is due to take place on April 24th.

In preparation, a delegation from the left-wing party Left Ecology Freedom visited the Brenner area on Thursday morning to meet with refugee activists and assess the situation, they announced in a press release on Wednesday.

Austria's threatens to close down border

Meanwhile Austria's defence minister has threatened to completely close the Brenner pass unless Italy stops the flow of refugees to its northern neighbour.

Defense Minister Hans Peter Doskozil said the “extreme” measure would be implemented if Italy fails to stop refugees crossing the border or doesn’t accept those who are sent back.

Speaking at a meeting of his SPÖ party in Innsbruck on Wednesday night, Doskozil said the Tyrol area of Austria has become a “refugee waiting room”.

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.

READ ALSO:

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.

SHOW COMMENTS