MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Austria has reportedly been tightening controls on its southern border with Italy, including building a fence at the Brenner Pass. Austrian Defense Minister Hans Peter Doskozil announced a plan last Saturday to deploy troops to the area.
"Austria is a friendly country with whom I hope we can continue to cooperate, but we cannot accept the logic of these unilateral gestures that would compromise this capacity for cooperation," the diplomat said as quoted by the national news agency ANSA.
Gentiloni slammed Austrian authorities for trying to "offload" responsibility for the ever rising number of migrants coming ashore in southern Europe on Italy and urged for a joint EU action.
The UN refugee agency estimates that over 17,000 migrants arrived in Italy in the first three months of 2016 after crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Most of them are from the Middle East and North Africa.
