Austria has mobilized its military forces in order to maintain security along its border with Italy, as the explosion of migrants crossing over from Africa has reached catastrophic proportions for the European nation.

So far, four armored vehicles have already been sent to the area and almost 800 soldiers are on standby, showing that the Austrian government is willing to take any measure available in order to protect itself from a problem that has already caused a lot of damage to the continent.

Regarding this delicate situation, Austrian defense minister Hans-Peter Doskozil said on Monday that the country will deploy more soldiers to its border with Italy if the migrant influx from the Mediterranean Sea doesn’t slow down.

With this strong move, the country will impose border checks and reinforce the security of its frontier with its neighbor. Recently, statistics revealed that almost 90,000 migrants have arrived in Italy so far in 2017, being the main reason why Austria is taking these steps.

Doskozil explained that he expects that border controls will be activated in the short term with its proper assistance deployment. Furthermore, the defense minister told that these actions are indispensable for Austria if the inflow into Italy does not cease.

Doskozil’s spokesman said the flood of migrants into Italy is basically unsustainable and that riot tanks would have to be deployed in order to face this threat in the most efficient way. Of course, he explained that far from being battle tanks, these are armored vehicles without weapons, as their main use is to block roads.

As a matter of fact, these armored vehicles were used during the refugee crisis of 2015/2016 at the Spielfeld border crossing with Slovenia. Naturally, this clearly shows that Austrian defense minister is making use of certain tools that already proved its efficiency in previous situations.

Italy’s foreign ministry has summoned Austria’s ambassador to discuss Vienna’s statements and movements regarding this issue. The UN International Organization for Migration recently announced that arrivals in Europe had passed the 100,000 mark in first six months of 2017 via the Mediterranean, with nearly 85 percent arriving in Italy from Libya alone.

At the same time, the UN refugee agency recently released a new report stating that at least seven of 10 illegal immigrants from Africa are not refugees, but instead are economic migrants, while the rest are “people in need of protection” like asylum-seekers or refugees.

Additionally, the agency reported that people smuggling and migrant flow in Libya are on the rise, which means that Europe could face an increased flow of migrants and refugees shortly.

In addition to these concerning statistics, Austria’s decision to militarily fortify its border comes on the heels of a recent meeting between six central European countries wanting to create a defense coalition in order to protect themselves from this reality.

Defense ministers and officials from Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Croatia, and Slovenia met in Prague earlier this month to discuss the details of the Central European Defense Cooperation.

This coalition will work as a framework of civil-military cooperation between the countries who want to handle the on-going migrant crisis in a markedly different way than Brussels and other EU member states, like Sweden, Germany, or Italy.

Sounds like Austria wants border controls with Italy. Might this be because Italy has no effective border controls any more? — Douglas Carswell (@DouglasCarswell) 5 de julio de 2017

Regarding the meeting and developments to come, a statement from the Hungarian Ministry of Defense pointed out that participants issued a short declaration which welcomes the Joint Action Plan and calls on the interior ministers of these nations to finalize it in the shortest time.

Furthermore, the statement said that this declaration takes note of the unified situation assessment, and states that the main goal is not only the protection of the external borders of the European Union, but also the eradication of the root causes of migration in the sending countries.

Previously, Austria also introduced checks on its eastern border with Hungary in 2015, and has prepared physical measures like barriers on the Italian border in the southwest, including at the popular Brenner Pass.

While many analysts believe Doskozil’s position is quite rational considering the concerning scenario that Austria is facing, it is also known that his comments come ahead of early elections in Austria in October.

Given the fact that he’s from the centre-left, anti-immigration policies are becoming a political golden card in Austria, considering that the far-right has gained a lot of popularity recently because of its stance on this issue.