EU plans to deploy 10,000 border police to protect EU external border

INNSBRUCK, Austria - The European Union plans to secure its external border by setting up a standing corps of 10,000 border guards by 2020 and a European border police force, the EU migration commissioner told reporters Thursday after a meeting of EU interior ministers.

Dimitris Avramopoulos told a press meeting in Innsbruck in Western Austria that the proposal aims to better protect the EU's external border.

"We will soon propose to enhance the capacities and the mandate of the European Border and Coast Guard to protect our external borders," said Avramopoulos.

The EU interior ministers met in Innsbruck on Thursday to discuss migrant crisis, a subject that has become a major issue for the EU since it began in 2015. Hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees have flocked to the continent in the wake of conflict and economic hardship in their homelands.

Austrian Interior Minister Herbert Kickl signaled he would show his tough stance on the migrant issue.

Avramopoulos noted, however, the migrant crisis now is not like in 2015, as the number of asylum seekers crossing the border has become much less in last year.

Austria also implemented border control recently on its borders with Germany and Italy.