On Wednesday, Austria’s Chancellor Christian Kern and Defense Minister Hans Peter Doskozil stated in a joint statement that Vienna would strengthen control along its border with Italy if there was a risk of a new influx of migrants to the country. One day before, Doskozil also announced Austria’s readiness to deploy 750 servicemen and four armored personnel carriers to the border of Italy.
"I believe that the Austrian decision is also a political gesture for both internal and external purposes: internal, as the green-left government wants to show off, a few months before the elections, a strong position on a hot topic such as immigration; external, as it is the answer to the Italian threat to close its ports," Zanni said.
"If the EU project was delivering well, we would have never had the deployment of troops within its borders between the two member states … Of course, it is another demonstration of the lack of solidarity between EU member states," Zanni added.
Zanni stressed the necessity of helping people directly in their countries of origin to prevent their exodus creating a new wave of migrants to the bloc in the first place.
The legislative elections in Austria are set to be held on October 15. The leader of the winning party will become the new chancellor of the country.
In late June, Italy reportedly started considering shutting its sea ports to foreign vessels, as it has become a common occurrence for all types of ships to pick up immigrants at sea and bring them to the Italian territory.
Since 2015, Europe has been experiencing its worst migration crisis in recent history, struggling to accommodate hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants fleeing hostilities in the Middle Eastern and North African countries. The latest IOM figures indicate that over 100,000 arrivals were registered across the Mediterranean this year, compared to over 230,000 in the same period last year.
