A small town of only 1,000 residents, Ulsted was traumatized this summer when an asylum seeker from Rwanda who was living at a refugee center in the town raped an elderly woman. But he said trouble began after young single men, mainly from Africa, were settled in a former home for the elderly. When you are used to no crime at all, it's a big difference. At a town meeting called after the rape the residents said they no longer wanted refugees in Ulsted. According to Peter Schleicher, head of the Danish Red Cross office for refugees in the country's northern region, isolation may be a cause of the problems, not the cure.
Small towns are very vulnerable societies.
I'd rather keep refugees on the outskirts of large cities. That way asylum seekers would be able to do a little work, go to discos and integrate into society better, he says. He just wants a place where he belongs, where he can make a living and raise a family. He wants to be part of an experiment called Europe.