BRUSSELS
Austria will reintroduce temporary border controls in an attempt to manage the refugee crisis, European Commission has said.
"The European Commission has received a notification from the Austrian authorities informing about their intention to temporarily reintroduce controls, as of September 16, at the borders with other EU-member states, particularly at the Austrian border with Hungary but also at the borders with Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia," according to a statement issued by the EU's executive arm Tuesday.
The temporary reintroduction of border controls between member states is an exceptional possibility explicitly foreseen in and regulated by the Schengen Borders Code, in case of a crisis situation, the statement said, adding that the current situation in Austria would be closely monitored.
"The objectives of our efforts must be to help ensure that we can go back to the normal Schengen system of open borders between Schengen member states as soon as feasible," it said.
Austrian Prime Minister Werner Faymann announced Monday that his government would deploy 2,200 troops along the country's border with Hungary amid Europe's ongoing refugee crisis.
"The police and the Austrian Interior Ministry need help, they need the help of the Austrian army," he told reporters in Vienna on Monday.
The announcement followed Sunday's move by Germany to impose temporary controls on its borders in a bid to contain the situation, where hundreds of thousands of people are trying to enter the country.
Latest reports indicate around 7,500 refugees, bound for Vienna, are being kept waiting in Nickelsdorf town near the Hungarian border.
Local government officials have been calling for the federal authorities to find a solution as they say they cannot shelter that many refugees.
The last three days have seen nearly 16,000 Germany-bound refugees cross from Hungary into Austria.
On Thursday, the Austrian authorities suspended train services to and from Hungary against "massive congestion," and then temporarily closed the highway to the Hungarian border due to hundreds of refugees walking towards Vienna.
Europe, which is facing what is described as the worst refugee crisis in the continent since the World War II, recently decided to accept up to 140,000 refugees.
But, the UN's refugee agency said recently that at least 850,000 people are expected to cross the Mediterranean this year and in 2016.
Tens of thousands of refugees are fleeing their war-torn countries, especially Syria, Iraq and Libya, and heading Europe risking their lives while crossing the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy or from Turkey to Greece.
The Amnesty International has said that the route, which sees refugees and migrants cross from Turkey to Greece before heading through Macedonia and Serbia to EU-member Hungary, may be less perilous than the Mediterranean crossing from Libya but still carries a high degree of risk.
