A small Swiss village of 600 inhabitants is demanding the closure of its asylum centre after one of the migrants, a 23-year-old Egyptian man, set fire to a popular forest hut and later broke into a house.
The centre was opened about an hour’s walk from the village, Les Verrières, because it had been hoped that the rural environment would provide less of an opportunity for the mostly young men to endanger public safety and order.
However, six years after it opened its doors to asylum seekers, the village has had to endure drunken men roaming the streets, break-ins into cars and houses, and harassment.
The municipality has written an official letter to the federal government, stating its desire to close the centre.
As Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger puts it, the case of Les Verrières shows that even a very small number of uncooperative people can cause havoc.
