Refugee crisis: Austrian winemakers refuse permission for government to build border fence on their land

The growers - with land on either side of the border - say the barbed wire fence has "no place" in a peaceful country

The barbed fence currently being constructed between the Austrian-Slovenian border (AFP)

A new barbed wire fence being built on the Austrian-Slovenian border has hit a snag - with local winemakers refusing permission for the barrier to be erected on their land.

Approximately 800 yards of the 2.3-mile fence - commissioned by the Austrian government to prevent refugees crossing from Slovenia - could potentially remain open.

The winemakers said they were taking the chance to make a political stand against the fence they said has “no place” in a peaceful country.

One of the landowners, Helmut Strobl: “It’s a chance for me to show that I don’t agree with the fence being put up, the whole thing is nonsense”.

Many of the growers have land on either side of the border and authorities have proposed giving the landowners keys to special doors built into the fence but Mr Strobl told the Local this would be impractical as the land is very steep.

Manfred Komericky, the deputy chief of the national police force, insisted Austrian authorities could maintain a border gap - saying it could be patrolled by police or security forces.

When the Austrian government first proposed the fence in October, they insisted it would only be to create a more “orderly flow” of refugees rather than to blocked them entirely.

Refugees began to pour over the border between Slovenia and Austria after Hungary began building its own barbed wire fence along its borders with Croatia and Serbia to prevent refugees entering the country entirely.

Hungary’s right-wing government opposes immigration and believing a joint force should seal Greece’s borders to prevent more refugees arriving from Turkey.

In the wake of the Paris attacks last month, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, gave an interview to Politico where he said “all terrorists are basically migrants”.