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IMMIGRATION

Refugee centre daubed with swastikas

A refugee centre in Hohenems, Vorarlberg, has been defaced with red graffiti - including swastikas and the words “stop the asylum flood”.

Refugee centre daubed with swastikas
Hohenems town centre. Photo: böhringer friedrich/Wikimedia

The wall of the building in Erlachstrasse was defaced sometime during Saturday night, police said. A second building in Bahnhofstrasse was also daubed with similar graffiti.

Police are looking for the perpetrators, who could be charged with xenophobia and violating the prohibition law which outlaws any revival of Nazism.

Anyone who was in the area on Saturday night and noticed anything unusual or suspicious has been asked to get in touch with the police in Hohenems, by calling 059 133 80 1133 or 059 133 801 133.

A police spokesman said there would not be an increased police presence around the refugee centre, but that routine patrols will be checking on it regularly.

FAR-RIGHT

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Radical Austrian nationalist Martin Sellner has been banned from entering Germany, it emerged on Tuesday, days after he was deported from Switzerland.

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Sellner, a leader of Austria’s white pride Identitarian Movement, posted a video of himself on X, formerly Twitter, reading out a letter he said was from the city of Potsdam.

A spokeswoman for the city authorities confirmed to AFP that an EU citizen had been served with a “ban on their freedom of movement in Germany”.

The person can no longer enter or stay in Germany “with immediate effect” and could be stopped by police or deported if they try to enter the country, the spokeswoman said, declining to name the individual for privacy reasons.

READ ALSO: Who is Austria’s far-right figurehead banned across Europe?

“We have to show that the state is not powerless and will use its legitimate means,” Mike Schubert, the mayor of Potsdam, said in a statement.

Sellner caused an uproar in Germany after allegedly discussing the Identitarian concept of “remigration” with members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) at a meeting in Potsdam in November.

Reports of the meeting sparked a huge wave of protests against the AfD, with tens of thousands of Germans attending demonstrations across the country.

READ ALSO:

Swiss police said Sunday they had prevented a hundred-strong far-right gathering due to be addressed by Sellner, adding that he had been arrested and deported.

The Saturday meeting had been organised by the far-right Junge Tat group, known for its anti-immigration and anti-Islamic views.

The group is also a proponent of the far-right white nationalist Great Replacement conspiracy theory espoused by Sellner’s Identitarian Movement.

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