Austria governor isolates asylum seekers

Joerg Haider has set up a holding facility in the remote mountains of southern Austria for asylum seekers suspected as criminals, saying they need to be isolated to protect the people in the area. Haider gained international prominence in 1999 when the Freedom Party, which he then headed, took 27% of the vote in Austria's parliamentary elections. The party's subsequent inclusion in the government led to months of European Union sanctions over Haider's statements, which were seen as anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic and sympathetic to Adolf Hitler's labor policies. Haider is now governor of Carinthia province and his regional government set up the facility for asylum seekers, which sits in a secluded pasture in the mountains of southern Austria at an altitude of about 3,900 feet. "With this security precaution, we are protecting the Carinthian population," Haider told a news conference. He said the number of criminal asylum seekers was on the rise.