Officials have claimed that membership sign-ups to a swimming pool in the Swiss municipality of Porrentruy have increased significantly after authorities imposed a ban on foreigners.
Last week, the Porrentruy Outdoor Swimming Pool announced that only those with a Swiss passport or a valid residence permit would be allowed access to the facilities following a spate of incidents involving migrants.
Lionel Maître, the official in charge of regulating leisure activities for the area, told Germany’s Bild newspaper that the ban on foreigners “went very well,” adding: “We saw an increase in subscription sales because citizens have finally regained the long-awaited sense of security.”
“We have taken a strong measure for this season. We still have to think about next season. But one thing is clear: if we have to repeat the measure, we will,” he said.
According to the paper, since the start of the swimming season, the pool had been shut down 23 times for incidents and zero times since the ban on foreigners.
A regular patron of the pool told the Swiss news outlet 20 Minutes that there have been frequent arguments between lifeguards and people with a “migrant background” — mostly young men of North African extraction — coming across the border in France over hygiene requirements, such as showering before entering the pool.
Officials said that the ban, which will only last until the end of the high season, was easily implemented as revellers were already required to show their passports, given that foreigners were charged more to enter than locals.
However, the policy has been criticised as being racist and discriminatory, including by members of the local Socialist Party.
Socialist Party Councillor Mathilde Crevoisier told Swiss newspaper Blick: “The ban is disproportionate. There are problems, but blanket bans are not the solution. We live in the middle of Europe and do not want discrimination.”
Swimming pools have increasingly become a flashpoint for multicultural divisions within Europe following the Migrant Crisis of 2015.
Last week, four Syrian male migrants were arrested after allegedly sexually harassing young girls as young as 11 at a public swimming pool in central Germany.
In 2022, Rainer Wendt, the head of the German police union, said that violence at swimming pools often came at the hands of young men with a “migration background.” Still, the political class usually attempted to “shy away” from the issue, Wendt claimed.
In 2019, the head of Switzerland’s lifeguarding association, Michel Kunz, said that lifeguards, particularly females, often faced abuse from young male migrants.
He said that swimming pools had become a place where “cultural differences clash,” explaining that “this is because some believe that women have nothing to say and become aggressive towards our employees.”
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