The conservative mayor of a small Austrian village defied the federal government and ordered dozens of tents housing migrants to be dismantled, ruling them "inhumane" and unsafe, especially for storms.

"It's very clear, this method of just putting up tents … I'm still convinced it's the most stupid solution, putting up these tents in municipalities which are already doing enough – I won't allow that,'' St. Georgen Mayor Ferdinand Aigner told the Associated Press (AP).

The mayor started taking down 17 white tents on Monday (November 14) that were set up in his village last month, following a weeks-long dispute with the federal government.

As of late Monday, Austria's interior ministry had not filed an appeal in court to keep the tents in place. The more than 100 asylum seekers living in the tents were distributed to other shelters.

 'Just too many'

Vienna has condemned the village's resistance toward housing asylum-seekers in tents, saying that most Austrian regions – including the state of Upper Austria where St. Georgen is based – did not meet their required quotas of taking in asylum-seekers.

"It's just too many," Aigner said, referring to the number of the asylum seekers St. Georgen is supposed to accommodate."

Christoph Pinter, the head of UNHCR Austria, said that if every municipality in Austria would "create a few places, the problem would quickly be solved." Pinter said only 5,000 more places were needed in the alpine nation.

Aigner said some of his village residents felt threatened by the presence of asylum seekers, many of whom are young men.

Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said the tents "prevent young men who have practically no chance of asylum from sitting around in front of schools, in front of kindergartens, in our main squares, in village squares, in train stations," the Austrian daily Der Standard reported.

Where do the migrants come from?

More than 70,000 people applied for asylum in Austria between January and September 2022. In comparison, only around 40,000 people applied for asylum in all of 2021. More than 85,000 Ukrainians who fled the Russian invasion sought refuge in Austria.

Many other asylum seekers come from India, Syria, Afghanistan or northern Africa. Many do not plan to stay in Austria, preferring to continue their journey to other countries such as Germany, Spain or Italy in search of work. However, they are legally not allowed to pass through Austria, so they apply for asylum if they become detained to evade immediate deportation. For this reason, the actual number of asylum applicants in Austria is much lower, according to the UNHCR.

With AP