Austria’s Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) announced on 10 July 2026 that it will begin removing the tent-based reception and screening structures erected in 2023 at the Thörl-Maglern road crossing on the Austrian-Italian border. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner and Carinthian Governor Daniel Fellner said the decision was made after asylum applications in Carinthia fell to “around 90 so far this year”, a 75 % drop compared with the same period in 2025. The tents were installed during the 2023 Western Balkan surge, when daily apprehensions at the border topped 400 and overwhelmed permanent inspection buildings. Since then, a mix of tighter joint patrols with Italy and Slovenia, accelerated asylum screening, and a crackdown on smuggling networks has reduced attempted crossings to single-digit figures on most days. BMI credits the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) pre-registration trials—already mandatory at Vienna and other airports—as one of the deterrents now being rolled out at major road checkpoints. For corporate mobility managers the rollback matters in three ways. First, Austrian authorities say they will re-assign 60 officers from Thörl-Maglern to mobile teams along the Tauern and Süd motorways, potentially shortening wait times for tourist and business traffic bound for Vienna, Graz and Klagenfurt. Second, the resources saved will be redirected to accelerating two long-planned projects at Klagenfurt Airport: a new police air-support base and a combined firearms & scenario-training centre, both slated to open in 2028. Faster air-police response could give Carinthian exporters and multinational plants added supply-chain resilience in the event of future disruptions. Finally, the removal of temporary infrastructure signals that Austria is confident enough to move from crisis mode to risk-based, intelligence-led checks. Travellers should still expect occasional spot controls, especially for cargo vans and buses, but the systematic congestion of summer 2024 is unlikely to return this season. Companies running shuttles for frontier workers between Udine, Villach and Graz can therefore revise their buffer times for border crossings. The BMI emphasised that dismantling will start “in the coming weeks” and be completed before the end-August holiday peak. Multinationals operating in the Alpe-Adria logistics corridor should monitor further notices, as short-term lane closures may occur while the tents are removed and equipment is redeployed.
Source: Bundesministerium für Inneres
