Europe – Migrants – Germany – Border
Fri Mar 18, 2016 16:34:22
Sitting in his leafy garden on a river that marks the German-Austrian border, Rainer Borchers is enjoying the return of peace and quiet since the massive migrant influx has ceased.
“It’s very quiet here. That’s why I moved here,” said the 38-year-old on an early spring day, weeks after the effective closure of the so-called Balkans refugee route.
For several months last year, Borchers had a front-row seat to Europe’s biggest migrant crisis since World War II from his home in the small town of Freilassing, set in the shadow of the Alps.
The garden of his small, traditional Bavarian house offers a clear view of a bridge over the river Saalach that marks the border near the Austrian city of Salzburg.
Last September it became a major gateway for thousands of desperate asylum seekers every day after Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany’s borders to Syrian refugees.
“They were waiting for their buses in front of my house,” remembered Borchers, who is on disability leave.
“For several weeks, there was a lot of noise — not because of the refugees, because they were very quiet, but because of the police — day and night. I had big trouble sleeping,” AFP reported.
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