Austria Deploys Soldiers to Turn Back Migrants at the Border

What started as a free for all last year, has become more restrictive with time as European nations begin to shutter their borders to any new refugees coming from the Middle East. Now Germany and Austria, the only nations that are still accepting refugees in significant numbers, are beginning to place tougher restrictions on their borders as well.

Beginning next week, Austria will deploy its army on their southern border to stop all refugees who don’t intend to settle in Germany, after Germany started enforcing the same policy. Roughly 200 migrants are being sent back to Austria every day, either because they want to travel through Germany to settle in countries that no longer want them, or because they have fake ID’s.

Officials with the governments of Germany and Slovenia have also expressed their intent to deploy soldiers along their borders. Germany’s Foreign Finance Minister recently demanded troops on their border, saying “We will have to deal with the question of why, under clear regulations in support of the police, virtually all countries in Europe can turn to their armed forces” except for Germany of course.

What we’re seeing here is a domino effect. If one nation closes its borders, the migrants will have to travel to neighboring countries, until there are too many of them for those governments to handle, and so on. Because Germany and Austria have been so accommodating to migrants, they have essentially become the dumping grounds for migrants being turned back from nations that have closed their borders. Since they are the last European nations to welcome the refugees with open arms, they are now receiving far more foreign nationals than they ever expected.

Without the rest of Europe to shoulder the burden of thousands of refugees arriving every week, the open door policy of Germany and Austria is starting to buckle. It may not be long before they are forced to follow the example of their neighbors, and completely close their borders to future refugees.