Austrian police, army perform migrant exercise at border

Fearful of a domino effect if Germany closes its borders, Austria staged a high-profile training exercise yesterday to show how it could deal with an influx of refugees along its frontier with Slovenia.

Hundreds of police in heavy armor, backed by soldiers and ‘Black Hawk' helicopters flying overheard, performed a dry run for the media near Spielfeld, 175 kilometers (110 miles) south of Vienna. The town was a major crossing point for migrants in late 2015, but has hardly seen any arrivals recently.

The migrants were played by 200 Austrian police cadets, who chanted and rattled the metal fence, demanding to be let in.

Austria's top security official said the exercise was necessary and lawful, dismissing concerns at home and abroad.

"A state which, if things come to a head, can't protect its borders effectively, loses its credibility," Interior Minister Herbert Kickl told reporters. "I'm strongly determined that events like those in 2015 must never happen again."

Kickl said he wanted to prevent people from abusing the right to asylum. "This has nothing to do with inhumanity, this isn't unlawful, this isn't indecent," he said. "This is what the law demands from us. It is what the people expect from us."

Kickl's far-right Freedom Party has pushed for a hard line against migrants for years and saw a surge in support following the 2015 migrant crisis, when thousands of people fleeing war and hardship at home poured through Europe's open borders daily, triggering a humanitarian and political crisis that has left deep divisions on the continent.

Meanwhile, Martin Sellner, who heads Austria's Identitarian Movement, applauded the fact that authorities were using the same "#proborders" hashtag favored by his white nationalist group to inform the public about the exercise.