Last summer, 8 people from Vienna refugee protest were deported. Right now, the Austrian state is carrying out a new deportation attack on refugee communities all over Austria – Pakistani as well as Chechens, Gambians, Nigerians and others.
On 9th of December 2013, several people were deported from Austria to
Lahore / Pakistan. According to informations from fellow refugees there
were at least eight persons from Vorarlberg, Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck
and Linz. According to refugee reports, the police arrested people by
surprise, without informing them beforehand that they were facing
deportation.
More people got letters by the police saying they have to leave Austria
within 14 days, putting them, too, under the threat of deportation.
This happened, for example, to a group refugees presently living in a
refugee camp at “Hotel Adler” in Schruns/Vorarlberg; similar things were
also reported about other asylum seekers staying in Vorarlberg. That
means that more people are concretely facing deportation threat during
the next days!
Deportations are forceful replacements and never happen voluntarily,
they are a clear violation of human rights and bring people in great
danger, not only in countries where there is civil war. There are a lot
of different problems and threats from which people are fleeing.
So-called “democratic” western countries actively produce reasons to
flee by destroying other countries through wars, economic exploitation
and supporting authoritarian and murderous regimes. Everyone living in
the “western world” is responsible for not looking away and showing
solidarity!
The Austrian asylum policy is causing many problems: The asylum system
is not made for giving access to a peaceful life for refugees, but to
exclude. Refugees' stories of what happened to them are constantly
ignored and ridiculed by Austrian authorities. Asylum decisions are
based on often false information provided by the Austrian foreign
ministry and embassies – not on what the real background of the
individual persons is. Sometimes, judges and authorities ask for
information from ministries of refugees` home countries, but these
informations are lies. Authorities and judges don't work independently,
but they have a political task: They are expected to give positive
asylum decisions only to a very small number of people. And then there
are only two chances, because already after a second negative decision
in the asylum trial, people are facing deportation.
Asylum seekers in Austria are treated as “most wanted criminals”, as the
police make a lot of efforts to find and arrest people for deportation
and even new prisons are built up only for refugees.
For 2014, the Austrian government announced “improvements” of the asylum
system, like providing better “Dolmetschers”. Although this shows that,
at last, after already many people suffered, were excluded, lost their
lives, the authorities realized that there are massive lacks in the
asylum system, we do not believe that the system itself, which is
causing the problems, will be changed. The system still serves the
interests of those who restrict free movement of people and the
interests of private companies and organisations who make business with
the lives of refugees!
The danger for refugees in Austria now is: It seems that the authorities
are trying to get rid of many refugees who got negative decisions by
deporting them before the implementation of new asylum rules in early
2014!
We call for active resistance against Austrian authorities who threaten
refugees with deportation! And we want to criticize sharply the role of
Caritas which is running a lot of the refugee houses in Vorarlberg and
other areas from where refugees are picked for deportation and doesn't
show any visible protest or practical solidarity with the victims of
deportation!
To bring this inhumane system to an end and to stop deportations, we
have to organize and take to the streets. We have to put pressure on
those in power, but at the same time get active ourselves.
We all are responsible.
No one is illegal – stop deportations!
[The authors of this article have different statuses in Austria, we are people with and without papers, some have a refugee-background and some not.]