A group of residents living in the village Linger (Bascharage municipality) have published an open letter angrily deploring that the fence is as close as 200 metres to some of their homes, in turn limiting their possibilities to freely move on the land of their village.
The residents also slammed the government for not warning them in advance, and highlighted that the fence is not going along the border, but has been built alongside a walking route. The walking route is, at points, one kilometre away from the border.
The group of residents questioned this move, claiming it would allow potentially infected wild boars to travel through Luxembourgish territory. Instead, they asked why the authorities had not built the fence through the woods at the border.
An information meeting will take place on Thursday evening in Clemency to discuss the measures taken against African swine fever. The topic will also be discussed in the parliamentary commission on agriculture.
Whilst the government is grappling with discontent related to the fence, the Belgian authorities have decided to partially allow access to the woods as of 6 April. Over the past few months, residents in Wallonia have been banned from walking in the woods, but certain areas., around 16,000 hectares of land, will be accessible to walkers as of Saturday
However, the authorities have continued to ban access from the areas in which the most recent cases of African swine fever have been registered. This notably affects the northern area surrounding Rulles, Neufchâteau, and Chiny as well as the southern area near Bois d’Ardenne, Meix-devant-Virton, and Grand Bois.
