Austria sends more police to patrol Brenner border area
VIENNA - Austria is sending 80 more police and support staff to boost patrols around the Alpine Brenner pass and catch rising numbers of unregistered migrants coming in from Italy, Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said on Sunday.
He denied the move was in any way linked to presidential elections in Austria in which a far-right candidate was deadlocked with a former leader of the leftist Greens party, with postal ballots to decide the race.
"It appears that here and there migrants are getting through at the Brenner, sometimes none, other times five, seven or 10. There is a also small number of asylum requests that pop up," Sobotka told reporters at an election event in Vienna.
