Bettina Halbey, 51, has lived in her flat in an idyllic western German town for 16 years. Now she is being forced to move out to make way for refugees, because building a new shelter is too expensive. The 51 year-old nurse, who has helped asylum seekers in the past, was shocked by the news.Halbey, who lives alone in the small town of Nieheim, received a letter from her landlord and the local municipality at the start of September, Die Welt newspaper reported on Thursday.
“I was completely shocked and I can’t even begin to find the words to describe how the city has treated me,” Halbey told the German publication. “I have had to go through a lot of difficulties recently, and then I get this notice. It was like a kick in the teeth.”
Halbey will have until May 2016 to find a new place to live, along with her dog and her cat. The three-story building, where she rented a 90 sq/m flat will now be turned into accommodation for refugees, who are seeking to make Germany their new home.
The mayor of Nieheim, Rainer Vidal, which has a population of just over 6,000, defended the decision to send the nurse packing, saying converting the building would be “the cheapest option.”
“A new residential unit for 30 refugees in Nieheim would cost €30,000 ($33,600). This solution will cost me nothing,” he told Die Welt.
Meanwhile, Germany’s domestic security agency has warned that the number of Islamists in the country has dramatically increased recently, adding that the extremists were actively seeking to lure refugees and migrants to their ranks.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s security watchdog, estimates that the number of Islamist radicals in the country had risen from approximately 7,500 in June up to around 7,900 in September, while there had only been some 3,800 in 2011.
The security agency also expressed concern that many were attempting to exploit the refugee crisis by recruiting incoming asylum-seekers, actively encouraging them to join terrorist groups or go to Syria to fight for the militants.
With Germany expecting about one million refugees and migrants by the end of the year, such activities could significantly increase the number of radicals in the country and pose a considerable threat to national security, the BfV warns, says Russian news agency, RT.
Obama has already declared he will let in “at least” 100,000 Syrians claiming to be refugees.
