Vienna:
Austria is sending around 500 asylum seekers to Slovakia to relieve pressure on its Vienna refugee arrival centre, where 1,200 people are having to sleep outside, Austria's interior ministry spokesman said.
The number of migrants seeking protection in the EU soared by 68 percent in the first five months of 2015 from a year earlier, the bloc said this month.
Many heading further north get stuck in countries like Italy or Austria and Vienna has demanded strict quotas to distribute migrants across a wider range of European Union states. It has been battling with its own provinces which for months have refused to fulfil domestic quotas for hosting refugees.
Austria's interior ministry said up to 500 asylum seekers would move in gradual stages to a former university building in the Slovak town of Gabcikovo by the end of September. Their asylum requests will continue to be processed in Austria, a spokesman for the interior ministry in Vienna said on Thursday.
Slovak Interior minister Robert Kalinak told public broadcaster ORF that pressure on Austria's asylum system was high and Slovakia stood ready to help.
Pictures of migrants wrapped in blankets sleeping on the grass outside Vienna's Traiskirchen asylum processing centre in Austrian media have caused an outcry on social media and human rights groups.
© Thomson Reuters 2015