Migrants In Europe 2017: New Berlin Wall Built By German Town To Separate Citizens From Refugees

Residents in a German town just outside of Munich have built a wall taller than the Berlin Wall to separate themselves from a refugee housing center that is scheduled to start welcoming migrants in April, Telesur reported Monday.

The 300-foot, 13-goot tall stone wall in Neuperlach is located roughly a 20-minute car ride south of Munich’s city center. It was created to curb the amount of “noise” expected to come from the nearby housing center that will host unaccompanied minor refugees. Neighbors cited the young migrants’ soccer games among other outdoor activities on the complex’ outdoor courts as potential disturbances to the oft-quiet community.

Germany welcomed more than 1 million migrants in 2015 and roughly 15,000 of those have settled in Munich and its areas surrounding since. The new refugee-housing center in Neuperlach will take in 160 unaccompanied minors who were granted asylum in Germany.

Local politician Guido Bucholtz said the wall symbolizes the anti-immigrant sentiment shared among community members who started resenting their government's lenient policies on immigration after migrants were connected to sexual assault attacks during the 2016 New Year’s festivities in Cologne.

“It’s not the noise. Symbolically, it’s a monster against refugees,” Bucholtz told Vice News.

The Neuperlach wall, which is more than a foot taller than the Berlin Wall that separated East and West Germany after World War II, started being built in 2016 after local residents filed petitions and lawsuits against the construction of a refugee shelter by their homes.

A Munich court responded that the wall could be built if didn’t enclose the refugee camp completely. The municipal decision also stated that the young migrants could neither play ball games nor climb on the wall.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's popularity in Germany has significantly decreased because of her open-door policy. Merkel met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan earlier this month to discuss a deal in which the European Union would send Turkey $3 billion to prevent new migrants from crossing the Aegean Sea for Europe, according to a Sputnik News.