Haider cashes in on cheap foreign labour
                 By Philip Sherwell and Karl Kirk in Klagenfurt


		 CHEAP seasonal workers from former Yugoslavia are regularly employed on
                 the large timber-logging estate owned by Jörg Haider, the leader of Austria's
                 far-Right anti-immigration Freedom Party, The Telegraph has learnt.

                 Labourers from Bosnia are being paid less than £100 a week, before
                 deductions, to work on the Bärental forestry estate that provides the
                 controversial politician with his personal fortune. The sumptuous 3,500-acre site,
                 sitting in the Alpine foothills in his stronghold of Carinthia in southern Austria
                 and worth about £10 million, was acquired by Mr Haider's family in 1941 from
                 its Jewish owners after they fled to Palestine. A knock-down price was
                 subsequently paid in the early 1950s.

                 The Freedom Party sent shock waves across Europe when it entered a new
                 Right-wing Austrian coalition government after taking second place in last
                 year's elections on the back of its "zero immigration" policy promise. Mr Haider,
                 who told one rally, "I am your patron saint against immigration", has repeatedly
                 raised the prospect of thousands of workers from eastern Europe pouring into
                 the country to work for low wages and undercut Austrians in the labour market.

                 But a Telegraph investigation has revealed that firms contracted to work on his
                 estate pay guest workers from former Yugoslavia as little as £350 a month for
                 12-hour daily shifts - and then deduct £70 for accommodation in cramped
                 dormitories. One Bosnian man in his fifties, whose identity is being withheld to
                 protect him, said that he had worked on the estate near Klagenfurt for two local
                 logging companies during the past five years. He was driven to the site by
                 minibus with other Bosnian guest workers and then taken back to their hostel at
                 night.

                 "'They pay me very little, even though I have the official papers," he said. "Five
                 of us live in this little room and we have to heat it with the wood we cut
                 ourselves. The rest of the house is completely unheated. The work is very
                 dangerous, but at least there is work. I have heard of Haider, but I'm not
                 interested in politics and politicians. I just want to work and be left alone." He
                 last worked there in November, but the deep winter snow means there is little
                 activity at Bärental now.

                 Foreign labourers are allowed into Austria on short-term contracts for specific
                 jobs, usually ill-paid and on a seasonal basis. There is no suggestion that the
                 firms logging the forests on Mr Haider's estate have employed illegal workers.
                 His press spokesman and party office in Klagenfurt did not reply to inquiries
                 yesterday. A woman who answered the mobile phone of his wife, Claudia, said
                 she was only looking after the phone.

                 However, Mr Haider's critics accused him of hypocrisy. "The Freedom Party
                 have gained from persuading the public that they are anti-foreigner," said
                 Madeleine Petrovic, the Greens' deputy leader. "But many of its people are
                 happy to employ seasonal workers on the cheap in their hotels, restaurants and
                 businesses."

                 The Telegraph's inquiries about immigrant workers in Carinthia, the region
                 bordering Slovenia where Mr Haider is governor, were met with hostility. There
                 was atmosphere of menace. Most people refused to give information, while one
                 man who described himself as a "Haider fan" told journalists that they would
                 have "big problems" if they continued their "campaign of hatred" against the
                 Freedom Party leader by investigating the issue.

                 The warning came amid reports from Klagenfurt's guest worker community of
                 increased anti-foreigner violence. Marco Anjelic, the owner of a bar popular
                 with workers from Croatia and Bosnia, said: "I've owned this bar since 1992
                 and never had any problems. But since Haider did so well in the elections there
                 have been three incidents at this bar alone. Only a couple of weeks ago, a gang
                 of five or six normally dressed Austrians in their twenties came in here and
                 started shouting 'Stinking Yugos go home!' and then started trying to smash up
                 the place. There was a fight and the police had to be called."

Daily Telegraph, 13-2-2000