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Austria, Slovakia introduce border checks after shock German move

14 September 2015 23:18 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Austria and Slovakia said they were reinstating border controls Monday to cope with a flood of refugees, following a similar move by Germany, which warned it could face up to one million migrant arrivals this year, APA reports quoting AFP.

Berlin's shock move, which struck at the heart of the EU's passport-free Schengen zone, had an immediate knock-on effect and ramped up the pressure on interior ministers holding crisis talks in Brussels later Monday.

Austria said it would deploy the army to help control the influx of people trying to leave Hungary before it starts arresting illegal migrants on Tuesday, while huge queues of traffic built up on the Germany-Austria border as the checks kicked in.

"We have to pull ourselves together today; if not, Europe will be torn apart," said Luxembourg minister Jean Asselborn, who is chairing the talks in Brussels on a new plan to redistribute 160,000 migrants.

Germany admitted that Europe's biggest migration crisis since World War II, with millions fleeing war-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, was causing chaos and had forced it to reverse its previous open-arms policy.

Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said there were "many signs that Germany this year will take in not 800,000 refugees, as forecast by the interior ministry, but one million."