Around 550 angry local residents crowded a public meeting in Vienna this weekend in protest at plans to create a new migrant centre near their homes.
Authorities plan to house 750 migrants in the suburb of Liesing, but residents are increasingly worried for their safety following the mass sex assaults in cities such as Cologne on New Year’s Eve.
Vienna’s “refugee coordinator” Peter Hacker, District Director Gerald Bischof and local police representative Walter Czapek were met with cries of “stop lying to us” as they unveiled the plans for the new centre.
One mother asked what authorities were doing to protect her and her 17-year-old daughter. “We are afraid,” she said. “I want to know who is responsible so I can sue whenever I or my daughter are attacked.”
Krone says that around a dozen policemen were guarding the increasingly rowdy meeting, something that only incensed the crowd even more. “I hope they have this number of policemen when the migrants move in,” said another resident.
A local architect even raised the issue of fire safety for new camp, arguing that the stairs in the building housing the migrants are too narrow to cope with 750 people fleeing a potential blaze.
Other members of the audience voiced concerns that the centre will cause their house prices to fall, while a suggestion to build a fence around the camp received a loud cheer.
Earlier this month, Breitbart London reported how an Austrian government official had warned that one migrant camp was a “breeding ground for radicalisation”.
Christian Konrad, refugee coordinator for the Austrian federal government, said the camp at Traiskirchen was full of “unaccompanied minors — all young boys” who were especially at risk of being indoctrinated by Islamist fanatics.
The centre is the largest in Austria, located around 20km (12 miles) south of Vienna, and has become synonymous with sex attacks. One teenage boy summed up his life at the camp: “I have nothing to do, except for breakfast, lunch, dinner. Otherwise I sleep all the time, waiting for a decision.”