Austrian police and soldiers will start controlling the eastern border with Hungary from Monday to stop illegal immigration and to counter the rise in people smuggling, police announced.
Police have recorded increasing numbers of smugglers and illegal border crossings in eastern Austrian regions over the past months, albeit at much lower levels than during the peak of the migration inflow last year.
The controls at checkpoints in Burgenland province would be conducted in a way that does not hinder normal traffic, and the measure would be temporary, police said, without stating an end date.
From Monday, all travellers to and from Hungary need to carry valid travel documents, even though the border is within Europe‘s borderless Schengen zone.
Authorities are also making preparations to raise fences along some stretches of this border in order to direct migrants to official crossings.
