Dutch citizens carry out own border checks to protest migration policy
Equipped with high-visibility vests and lamps, a group of Dutch citizens has been carrying out their own checks at the German border, prompted by dissatisfaction with the current migration policy.
The participants, who number around a dozen according to local media reports, decided to take matters into their own hands and have been engaged in border checks, videos of which have been circulating on social media.
They have been applauded by right-wing politician Geert Wilders, whose PVV party withdrew from the Dutch coalition government last week after it refused to adopt his migration proposals.
The same day, Prime Minister Dick Schoof announced he was also stepping down, slamming Wilders' decision to leave the coalition as "irresponsible and unnecessary".
"As far as I'm concerned, this shouldn't have happened," he said.
A snap election will take place on 29 October following the collapse of the government.
In contrast to Wilders, the Netherlands' Minister of Justice and Security, David van Weel, has been less enthusiastic about the citizens' action.
"Frustration is understandable, but don't take the law into your own hands," he warned.
He said the government is in favour of stricter immigration laws, he advised citizens to "Let the police and border police do their job."
The police also advised the citizens to stop the border checks immediately.
"Such actions create extremely dangerous situations on and along the road," the Dutch police said in a statement carried by the newspaper De Gelderlander, calling the border checks "really unacceptable."
Around 30 people were evacuated from their homes in the upper Val de Bagnes in canton Valais in Switzerland after heavy rainfall unleashed a major mudslide.
Residents of the village of Les Epenays will be "housed elsewhere for an indefinite period. It depends on nature, it makes the laws," Antoine Schaller, deputy secretary general of the municipality of Val de Bagnes, told local news.
The area saw heavy storms last week, after which mud, wood and large stones tore away the temporary emergency bridge in the upper Val de Bagnes, but residents said buildings were spared.
"The concern is the volumes coming down. And then there's the detachment zone in the mountain, where an entire section is moving at a rate of about two meters per day," said Pierre-Martin Moulin, General Secretary of Val de Bagnes.
It comes just over a week after a landslide cause by a glacier collapse buried most of the Swiss village of Blatten, renewing attention on the increasing dangers of global warming.
On 29 May, a large chunk of the Birch Glacier above the village had broken off, causing the landslide which also buried the nearby Lonza River bed, raising the possibility of dammed water flows.
Swiss glaciologists have repeatedly expressed concerns about a thaw in recent years, attributed in large part to global warming, that has accelerated the retreat of glaciers in Switzerland.
The landlocked Alpine country has the most glaciers of any country in Europe, and saw 4% of its total glacier volume disappear in 2023. That was the second-biggest decline in a single year after a 6% drop in 2022.
In 2023, residents of the village of Brienz, in eastern Switzerland, were evacuated before a huge mass of rock slid down a mountainside, stopping just short of the community. Brienz was evacuated again last year because of the threat of a further rockslide.
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