Slovakian town unites over refugees — it doesn’t want them
GABCIKOVO, SLOVAKIA— The next act of the European refugee crisis will unfold in little towns like this one, where hundreds of Syrian war refugees are coming to live in a village that just voted by overwhelming numbers to oppose their stay.
In the last two weeks, the first of 500 Syrian asylum seekers arrived to take up a three-month residency at a state-run dormitory in the centre of town.
In August, as locals watched the news of streams of migrants winding their way through Europe, the village held a special referendum: 97 per cent voted to oppose reopening the Slovakian government’s refugee facility.
“We’re not haters,” said Zoltan Jakus, one of the organizers of the vote. “But I think this will end badly.” With the refugee crisis escalating, European Union leaders recently approved a plan to spread 120,000 asylum seekers across 28 nations on the continent, over the objections of Central European countries.
Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia voted against the measure, a rare note of discord.
The residents of Gabcikovo wonder why wars and unrest thousands of miles away, involving Muslims, should be their business.
Gabcikovo is a town of 5,000 residents, where pensioners ride bicycles along quiet lanes lined with sturdy houses, many with overflowing gardens and ceramic gnomes, where everybody not only knows your name, but also what football club you support and what beer you drink. Most of them speak Hungarian and are Catholic.
The people of Gabcikovo say they are not cold-hearted or racist, but they are clearly worried, and many of them are asking the same questions as other Europeans who feel uneasy about the rising numbers of war refugees and economic migrants. “Who are these people? Where do they come from? Why are they here?” said Daniel Koczkas, 27, who works at a coffee distributor and has lived in Gabcikovo all his life.
He waved a greeting to his mother, who was passing by on her bicycle. “We have no problem with different colours,” Koczkas said, “but we don’t know them.”
One of his friends, Zoltan Zsemlye, 26, who works for Volkswagen, said, “If they’re all war refugees, why don’t they go to the Arab countries?”
The two friends asked how many refugees were being taken in by rich Arab states in the Persian Gulf. They answered in unison, “None!” Gabcikovo has a long history of hosting outsiders, but this time it is different. During the early 1990s, the dormitories at the Slovakian Technical University sheltered people fleeing the Balkan wars.
The dormitories were used again to house other refugees and migrants seeking asylum in Europe.
“We had Chechens, Iranians, Sri Lankans, Romanians, you name it,” said Zoltan Jaros, an administrator of the dorms.
Jaros said that between 1993 and 2008, more than 5,000 refugees and migrants spent time at the campus dorms.
“We have not had a single serious crime,” he said.
“Maybe somebody stole an apple from a tree. But no rapes, assaults, robberies. Nothing.”
Jaros said he has been impressed with the first arrivals at his dormitories. “Very calm. Very orderly,” he said. “You can see they are educated people. They speak better English than me.”