Residents take to the barricades against the federal asylum center in Boudry NE: “They will exercise vigilante justice”

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“Imagine moving to a quiet community to live in peace. From one day to the next you see police cars with sirens blaring. Police officers comb fields and hedgerows looking for drug hiding places. Or helicopters circling above the area. This is surreal!”

He could laugh about it, but Dastier Richner is tired. “Eventually,” as he says. The father of the family lives less than 500 meters from the federal asylum center in Boudry NE, the largest in the country. He has already been robbed four times by asylum seekers and has had enough of the rudeness, he says. In 2020, he founded “Bien vivre à Neuchâtel”, an association with today 200 members that advocates “harmonious and fear-free coexistence”.

The collective’s website is full of reports from local residents. Someone writes that his daughter’s buttocks were grabbed on the bus, others talk about burglaries and thefts.

Residents have launched a petition

According to official figures, crime in the canton of Neuchâtel will increase by four percent in 2022. Almost half of the crimes committed in the region around the asylum seeker center for which the perpetrator(s) could be identified were committed by asylum seekers. They are a small minority of young men from North Africa who are alarming local residents.

Some residents have installed surveillance cameras to protect themselves, while others have bought a dog to alert them to intruders.

In late February, Richner and other committee members launched a petition calling for the federal asylum center to be converted into housing for migrants and families. Or the closure of the center within six months if the situation does not improve. The petitioners have already collected 1,700 signatures.

The people in Boudry are open and hospitable, Richner emphasizes. The association is not politically motivated. “But setting up an asylum seeker center with 480 places in a community of 6,000 inhabitants, which can even be expanded to 800 places, is too much. We can’t live like this anymore.”

He added that the members of “Bien vivre à Neuchâtel” would plan further actions if their demands were not heard. Demonstrations, initiatives. “If nothing moves, residents will engage in vigilante justice,” Richner warns. He thinks riots will occur if authorities do not take action.

“Everyone knows there are problems”

“There is a problem, everyone knows it,” says Boudry mayor Gilles de Reynier. The lawyer did not sign the petition, but understands the residents’ motivations. He supports the petition – because it puts pressure on the authorities.

Since November last year, measures have been taken to restore a sense of security. Social workers were hired and private security patrols on public transport were expanded. That has reassured the population, but we have to go further, says de Reynier.

The mayor demands that a selection process must take place when accepting asylum seekers. Green light for families, older men and people from war-torn countries. Young men from North Africa, on the other hand, should be rejected. ‘They don’t come here to seek protection. They tour Switzerland and Europe to make some money.”

According to the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), approximately 280 people are currently staying in the federal asylum center in Boudry. Nearly a third of them are single men and 22 percent are unaccompanied minor asylum seekers (UMA), with nationals from Afghanistan and Turkey most often represented. For reasons of data and personal protection, the SEM keeps the gates of the site closed. Visit impossible.

“Family Problems”

At a stop in front of the federal asylum center, Hamza (29) waits for the bus with a somewhat lost look. The red backpack: his only possessions. He left his native Algeria in 2019. “Problems with the family,” he explains. In his hand he holds an itinerary that he does not understand and a day ticket.

He said he arrived in Boudry the day before and now has 24 hours to travel to the asylum center in Chiasso TI. ‘I would have liked to stay here. At least French is spoken here and there are small jobs.” He knows that people from the Maghreb have a bad reputation in the region. “Of course there are crooks, but we are not all the same. “I’m serious, I’m not looking for trouble or arguments,” he says before boarding the bus.

There is also Ayoub (20) from Algeria. Like Hamza, he also arrived at the center the day before. Ayoub has already traveled through France, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium and he admits that he does not know what his future will bring. He hopes to get a job in the kitchen.

Or Amir from Kuwait, who came with his wife and four children. They had previously lived in Greece for three years, but conditions were too difficult. Now he wants to try his luck in Switzerland. Until his asylum application is examined, he sleeps, goes to the market and works wherever he can.

Moved because she could no longer tolerate the “intimidation”.

On the train that connects Neuchâtel with Boudry, resident Mathilde Michaud (18) says that she has already been harassed on public transport. She says: “I don’t always feel safe. But it didn’t traumatize me.” Asylum seekers usually do very well.

Justine Fortin (25) sees it differently. She says she could no longer tolerate the daily harassment. She eventually left Boudry and moved to another community. She emphasizes that she “doesn’t want to lump everyone together”. It is a small minority that causes problems. “I am in favor of taking in people who really need shelter. But not those who exploit the asylum system,” she says.

The move hurt her soul, she says. “But I have to think about my future. Because if I have children, I don’t want them to grow up in this environment. But I know I will return one day.”

Source:Blick