A Swiss town which introduced rules barring asylum seekers from some public areas, including schools and sports grounds, has been forced by public uproar and the danger of legal proceedings to draw back.
Realising that its scheme may contravene the constitution and be vulernable to legal challenge, the town council of Meilen, near Zurich, in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, has decided to resort to informal measures instead, according to the newspaper which broke the story.
Asylum seekers will be asked rather than compelled to keep out of certain parts of the town, and the police will step up their patrols in the town centre to appease citizens who say they are afraid of the newcomers, the Swiss newspaper Wochenzeitung says.
The original plan voted through by the council was far more radical, resulting in the production of a colour-coded map of the town.
Red areas, including schools and sports grounds, were strictly off-limits to asylum seekers; in green areas, which included the central square, they were not allowed to congregate in groups and would be dispersed immediately if they did.
To add insult to injury the authorities stipulated that asylum seekers could not use the public swimming pool unless accompanied by a local resident or official.
The map’s explanatory key depicted four black men with a line through them to indicate no-go areas.
The council argued that it was seriously concerned about drug-related crime and violence, and sought to protect the town’s 11 500 inhabitants.
Hans Isler, the council president and a member of the rightwing anti-immigration Swiss People’s party, was unavailable for comment yesterday, but he is on record saying that he believes the plan would have been constructive and positive.
His son confirmed the existence of the map.”There are some zones where they can go and others where they can’t,” he said
When Wochenzeitung broke the story it generated a storm of criticism.
”It’s an awful story. We couldn’t believe it when we heard of it first,” said Susanne Boos, a journalist on the paper.
”The pressure from outside was so great that they had to cancel the project, but it will still happen unofficially.”
Peter Nideröst, a Zurich-based lawyer and vice-president of an organisation which helps asylum seekers, Solidarité sans Frontières, said he was still in a state of shock.
”For me this was the first step to apartheid.” If tolerated it could have sparked a chain reaction around the country, he added.
”The next commune would say that asylum seekers can’t use the bus or can’t go to such and such a place, and so on.”
Nor, he claimed, had Meilen had any real problems with asylum seekers. It had only recently become a minor holding centre for the region, and asylum seekers stayed there for only a few months before being sent on elsewhere.
He believed the main reason the authorities had backed down was the law.
”It wouldn’t have been in line with the Swiss constitution. That’s quite clear.”
Hostility towards immigrants and asylum seekers is becoming intense in Switzerland. In a referendum last month it rejected what would have been the toughest refugee and asylum rules in the industrialised world by a little under 3 000 votes.
It received 20,000 applications for asylum last year, compared to Britain’s 71 000, but its population is tiny – just 7m. This year, according to the authorities, applications are up almost 30% . – Guardian Unlimited