Rome- The statements by Austrian defense minister about controlling the surge of refugees to it from Italy have upset Rome that summoned its ambassador on Tuesday. In its statement, the ministry said that the Austrian government statements on deploying the army forces on border between the two countries led to summoning the Austrian ambassador from Rome.

Austrian Defense Minister Hans Peter Doskozil stated that he expects restrictions would be introduced along the boundary with Italy soon.

In an interview with Kronen Zeitung published on Tuesday, the minister said that the Austrian army is ready to deploy up to 750 troops in 72 hours to support the police on the border – the International Organization for Migration reported that more than 12,000 immigrants arrived to south Italy during the past week.

Vienna warned earlier that it will impose restrictions on Brenner crossing between Austria and Italy if Rome fails to stop the surge of immigrants in the north. These restrictions might hinder the passage of trucks through Brenner crossing.

More than 100,000 immigrants and refugees arrived to Europe since January 2017 via the Mediterranean Sea while 2,247 were killed or considered missing, as reported on Tuesday by the International Organization for Migration.

More than 85,000 immigrants and refugees arrived to Italy, around 9,300 to Greece and 6,500 to Spain, showed the organization. It also announced last Friday that 96,000 immigrants arrived to Europe and the contrast with figures published on Tuesday goes back to updating the given from Spain.

In the same period in 2016 (between January and 3 July) the number of those arriving to Europe was double the current one (232,000).