After Taliban Takeover: First Deportation to Afghanistan

It is the first deportation from Austria to Afghanistan since the radical Islamic Taliban regained power there in 2021.

There was quite a stir when an Austrian delegation traveled to Kabul at the beginning of the year to discuss the possibility of deportations on an administrative level. In September of this year, representatives of the regime were in Vienna to coordinate the execution of deportations. It was then revealed that 30 people could be affected by deportation to Afghanistan.

Further Deportations Are Being Prepared

The Ministry of the Interior also emphasized on Tuesday that further deportations are being prepared. This tough and necessary path will be consistently continued, said Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) in a written statement. Chancellor Christian Stocker (ÖVP) stressed that there is zero tolerance towards people who have forfeited their right to stay through criminal acts. These offenders must leave the country, no matter where they come from.

The man who has now been brought to Afghanistan is a person born in 1994, who had already served nearly four years in prison in Austria. According to government information, he was convicted of serious bodily harm and rape. The man was brought to Kabul via Istanbul in the presence of Austrian police officers.

The government thus remains on the course that began with three deportations to Syria and continued with the first deportations to Somalia in around 20 years. This means that refugees who have committed crimes are also deported to countries where the security situation remains critical. The recognition rate for asylum applications from Afghans in Austria this year was 76 percent.

Criticism from Different Sides

FPÖ security spokesman Gernot Darmann stated in a reaction that the ÖVP is celebrating a drop in the ocean while keeping "the floodgates for illegal mass immigration wide open." As with the individual deportations of Syrians, they are also trying to fool the public with this deportation of a single Afghan.

Criticism of a different kind came from Amnesty International. In Afghanistan, arbitrariness, disappearances, and torture are everyday occurrences. To deprive people of protection and deliver them to this regime clearly violates the internationally enshrined principle of non-refoulement: "States are prohibited from sending people back to a country where torture, persecution, or other serious human rights violations threaten."

Green Party leader Leonore Gewessler emphasized at a press conference on Tuesday that deportations are legal decisions, not political ones. However, what she lacks understanding for is when "representatives of a terrorist group are invited," referring to the talks with the Taliban. "I have always felt that we want to keep terrorists out of Austria and not invite them."

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.