Following the announcement of a new asylum centre being established in Brežice soon, the Brežice Municipal Council met on Tuesday to express its clear dissatisfaction with the government’s decision to set up asylum centres in the municipality without the consent or any prior consultation with the local community. If the government goes ahead with its actions, they have announced civil disobedience, including protests and the closure of the local international border crossing.
At an extraordinary meeting held on Tuesday, the Brežice municipal councillors unanimously adopted a decision to oppose the establishment of an asylum centre in Obrežje. They were not convinced by assurances that this was a temporary measure and that security would be taken care of.
“The establishment of an asylum centre in an area which is congested with passenger and freight traffic is unacceptable. The infrastructure and facilities built in this area, which are mainly for customs and freight forwarding procedures, are not sufficient for the purpose of having someone live here,” stressed Slavko Bizjak, municipal councillor and vice-president of the Jesenice na Dolenjskem local community.
The current government has thus taken a decision without consultation and without providing sufficient information on how the asylum centre will be set up, what its capacity will be and how it will affect the demography of local communities. All this lack of information has caused further concern among residents who cannot imagine how the new situation will affect their daily lives.
Vice-Mayor of Brežice: “We must not allow the quality of life to decline”
The fact that the residents of Jesenice na Dolenjskem and Velika Dolina are already complaining about the security situation was underlined by the Vice-Mayor of Brežice, Aleksander Gajski, who warned that the establishment of an asylum centre would only further exacerbate security fears. “This is the reason for our appeal that we must not allow a further decline in the quality of life in our environment, in our municipality,” he was clear.
Bojan Tomc, Head of the State Border and Foreigners Department at the Novo mesto Police Administration, explained that migration trends cannot be influenced by the police, but by the migration policies of the countries in the region. He said that the way the countries through which migrants travel, the visa regime and approaches to work should change.
In case of non-compliance, the municipality has announced civil disobedience
“If you do not take into account the above-mentioned position of the broader local community of 2,300 citizens, we are prepared to express our civil disobedience in accordance with the legislative provisions by closing international border crossings, especially the Obrežje border crossing, and holding a protest rally,” the President of the local community of Velika Dolina, Fredi Žibert, was clear.
Of the 30 municipal councillors, 28 voted in favour of the decision to oppose the construction of the asylum centre at Obrežje, and none voted against it.
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