Bairawies with a population of 280 is to accommodate 130 migrants in a container facility.

The Bavarian village of Bairawies, home to 280 residents, is protesting against housing 130 migrants in a container facility in the settlement. Recently, 170 people protested against the project launched by an investor, the Suddeutsche Zeitung wrote.

„Enough is enough, we can’t do it,” was one of the slogans of the protest, with a barely veiled reference to former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s slogan „Wir schaffen das!” („We can do it”) at the time of the migration wave.

„For our homeland, for a fair refugee policy, against mass admission,” another slogan said.

The plans, „which will blow up our village”, are not good for the asylum seekers or the local population, said the protesters, who were joined by demonstrators from Marienstein, a nearby municipality facing similar problems, the Norwegian Document new portal pointed out.

Although the municipality has refused to issue a building permit for the housing containers, locals fear that the district authorities will override the decision. „It has happened in other places,” Wolfgang Koster, leader of the association Bairawies aktiv!, told the Bild.

„Bringing 130 migrants to the village would be like adding 750,00 new residents to Munich’s population overnight,”

Kostner said, calling the plans insane and claiming that it is a new political strategy to place asylum seekers in villages so as not to lose votes in more populous places.

Local residents say the planned refugee centre will „ruin our village”, stressing that there are no „social facilities” in Bairawies, not even a supermarket, and the nearest town is over a mile away.

Not an unprecedented case

As reported by V4NA in an earlier piece, the small village of Petersdorf in Brandenburg is to receive 500 migrants despite having only 600 inhabitants. Local residents are outraged and feel helpless.

Du kannst inzwischen in ein beliebiges Dorf des Landes fahren und triffst schockierte Anwohner, die sich nie gewünscht haben, Flüchtlingscontainer vor der eigenen Haustür zu haben, aber sehr wohl welche bekommen. Ortsbesuch in Petersdorf, wo am Sonntag gewählt wird. @niusde_ pic.twitter.com/7yhcKcfmXu

— Jan A. Karon (@jannibal_) September 20, 2024

Just outside the settlement, an old military barracks is now being converted into a hostel to house hundreds of migrants.

The former barracks is a four-storey building with a capacity for 300 people, and there are plans to expand the centre, including the installation of housing containers. Construction crews are already at work and will soon complete the facility.

The local mayor of Petersdorf, Thomas Schoppe, told the local newspaper Markische Oderzeitung that the containers were already being built „when the local municipality was still discussing the issue”.

In his view,

„we have been completely betrayed”.

Voters within the settlement are also angry, while others are simply disappointed. Residents told a Welt reporter that they had no idea how buses, kindergartens and other services would cope with the sudden influx of migrants, while others said they „don’t want foreigners in the area at all”.