Swiss Town Bans Refugees from Public Places

Sure, refugees can seek asylum in Switzerland—they just might have to keep away from libraries, swimming pools, school playgrounds, churches (you know, public places) depending on what town they're in. Along with the opening of its new asylum center, the town of Bremgarten has instituted new rules banning refugees from 32 so-called "exclusion zones." Bremgarten Mayor Raymond Tellenbach said the new restrictions were meant to "prevent conflict and guard against possible drug use," and the head of Switzerland's Federal Office of Immigration has endorsed them. Meanwhile, Swiss human rights groups are calling the rules "intolerable" and "blatantly discriminatory." In addition to basically instituting segregation, the new rules create more roadblocks to applying for asylum and impose a 5pm curfew on refugees who take up residence in former Swiss army mountain bunkers-turned-refugee-centers, most of them miles away from society.