Austria has deployed 70
soldiers to help police conduct checks at its border with Italy,
near the Brenner Pass, territorial military commander Herbert
Bauer announced on Wednesday.
"This does not mean," local police chief Helmut Tomac said,
"that Panzers will be deployed there as well."
Austria has threatened in the past to shut the Brenner Pass
if Italy were to give migrants humanitarian visas to travel
across Europe, a possibility Rome has aired but since ruled out.
Meanwhile Premier Paolo Gentiloni called for "a greater
European effort to face the migrant phenomenon which has a
structural dimension and concerns the entire European Union", in
a reply to a July 25 letter from European Commission President
Jean-Claude Juncker.
Gentiloni said "it is fundamental that the EU's member States
should agree to finance in a significant way, already before the
European council meeting in October, the EU trust fund for
Africa, also to support the activity of the UNHCR and the IOM in
Libya".
Italy is sparing no energy on the migrant crisis, Gentiloni
said Wednesday told Juncker.
"Italy is not sparing any energy to respond, with a national
mobilisation, to the challenges" of the migrant crisis, the
premier wrote.
Gentiloni said "we appreciate the European Commission's
determination to be at Italy's side (on migrants) and maintain a
constant dialogue with the Italian authorities, through the
permanent contact group coordinated by your Cabinets in
Brussels".
European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told
ANSA Wednesday the EC was "strongly committed to supporting
Italy and will continue to work closely with Italian authorities
to immediately enact the proposed supplementary measures" on
relocations, repatriations and asylum procedures.
He said "we are counting on the support of all the member
States in this work and in showing solidarity with Italy".
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