Sihlbrugg,21.06.2017
Proprietress of motel withdraws offer to canton
The proprietress of the Motel Sihlbrugg, Ursula Röllin, has withdrawn her offer to have her premises used for accommodation for asylum-seekers, after the canton was not able to say whether it would use it or not.
In waiting for over two years for a decision from the canton, Röllin has not been able to make any long-term plans. For example, she has not been able to tell guests about the possibility of long-term stays. Not that Röllin is disgruntled in any way about being kept waiting for so long. Indeed, she said how well negotiations with the cantonal authorities had gone.
For her part, Manuela Weichelt-Picard, the current head of the cantonal government who is also responsible for asylum-seeker matters, explained that working out how many beds to have ready at any one time for refugees was not easy to plan, and that a certain level of flexibility had to be maintained, the canton not knowing precisely how many further refugees would be allocated to it by central government in Bern, nor when they might be expected.
She went on to say that, despite the offer of accommodation at the motel being made in 2015, serious negotiations about such matters take time. It was not as simple as one might imagine, especially in the case of older properties. Indeed, as far as these premises were concerned, alterations to meet fire safety precautions would have been necessary and new kitchens and laundry facilities installed, all at a cost of CHF 110,000, too.
While she regretted Röllin had withdrawn her offer, she accepted that she had the right to do so, of course.
At the time the offer was made, the situation with regard to accommodating asylum-seekers was more critical than it is now and the canton was expecting ever increasing numbers. At present the number has remained at about 1,200 since the beginning of this year.
Nevertheless, this announcement means that there will some 100 fewer beds available for asylum-seekers if and when they arrive. As per the cantonal government’s policy of sharing the burden with each of its municipalities, Baar is housing too few refugees, by some 57, too. Regular readers will know that there have been plans for some time to set up new accommodation for asylum-seekers on the centrally-located Obermühle site there, but objections to it are still being examined by the administrative court.
On a related theme, read about 20-year-old Syrian refugee Abdulmalik Baker on today’s Panorama page.