At the end of December 2007 Austrian soldiers sallied out for the last time to safeguard the 470 kilometer long border to Slovakia (113 kilometers) and Hungary (357 kilometers). These countries are now part of the "Schengen" agreement, of an illustrious circle of EU countries that don't have border controls anymore among each other.
About 335.000 soldiers doing their basic military service as well as professional soldiers have patroled the eastern border of Austria...
more »At the end of December 2007 Austrian soldiers sallied out for the last time to safeguard the 470 kilometer long border to Slovakia (113 kilometers) and Hungary (357 kilometers). These countries are now part of the "Schengen" agreement, of an illustrious circle of EU countries that don't have border controls anymore among each other.
About 335.000 soldiers doing their basic military service as well as professional soldiers have patroled the eastern border of Austria since the fall of the Iron Curtain 17 years ago. They detained around 92.000 people coming from 101 countries trying to illegaly cross the border. The border crossers often declared a hot spot like Afghanistan, Iraq or Chechnya as their country of origin even though they have a different nationality. Otherwise they would not have been able to seek for asylum.
One base of the Federal Armed Forces was in Kittsee, a village of 1.800 inhabitants in northern Burgenland, just a stone's throw away from the Slovak capital Bratislava. Everday life of the soldiers based in Kittsee for the better part consisted out of long marches over fields and from raised stand to raised stand.
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