PRESS RELEASE

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Austria Mobilized Army Stop Refugees Crossing from Italy

Aug. 17, 2017 (EIRNS)—While it likes to consider itself a happy family of nations without borders, the European Union has revealed itself once again to be a fraud. Now the Austrian government announced that they are sending 70 troops to the Italian border to prevent illegal migrants from crossing into Austria aboard freight train cars. The soldiers will be deployed at the Brenner Pass, which defines an Alpine border between Italy and Austria. Helmut Tomac, a senior Austrian police official, said the government would send armored military vehicles as well against the unarmed refugees, including women and children.

The announcement drew a sharp response from Italy.

"We shall not accept lessons and much less threats such as those we have heard from our neighbors in recent days," said Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni. "We are doing our duty and expect the whole of Europe to do the same alongside Italy."

Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti said in a press conference that after the two days of June 27-28, when 27 ships unloaded 12,000 refugees in Italy, the European Union offered Italy "only more money to create new hotspots." And hotspots are real prison camps, where nobody can get out. "Think about it: they proposed to us to create detention centers, real jails, even for unaccompanied minors," said a government official quoted by Il GIornale. The money offered by Brussels aimed at guaranteeing that refugees do not move from Italy into France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia.

That is why the Italian government, Minniti explained, decided to go its own way and implement a different policy, which included regulating non-governmental organizations' activities and the deal with the Libyan coast guard.