Facts of the recent deportation of young Afghans/Vienna - Kabul

Deportations to Afghanistan are, as we keep emphasising, deeply reprehensible. The country is at war, the government as well as the police, authorities, etc. are in a quagmire of corruption. Terrorists control large sections of the country, mafia-like machinations are the order of the day. Even if now and then we see pictures of business people, of groups fighting for rights, of people seemingly strolling peacefully through the streets, appearances are deceptive! This is a small minority, the elite in the country, who buy certain freedoms with money, so to speak. Everyday life in Afghanistan looks different.

Of course, it is not the case that every person is immediately killed on the street. But the permanent fear, hunger, no work, the possibility of being involved in an attack, gang wars, a blood feud, a NATO action with a deadly outcome at any time is real and more than justified. Being checked, blackmailed, tortured, killed by extreme radical groups like the Taliban and their sympathisers is possible at any second.

Deportation 4.2.2020

As I am (once again) in direct contact with two of those affected, here is a short report on what people can expect after being deported from Austria. If you now consider that maybe 4 out of 22 deportees have someone who supports them from Austria, then the massive injustice we cause through these deportations becomes even clearer.

Landing in Kabul

Already at the airport, the convert (H. was baptised by the Catholic Church last year) and several others were told by an IOM employee that they should leave Afghanistan as soon as possible because it was far too dangerous for them here. Knowing that in Afghanistan the word is spreading this big lie that only criminals are being deported from Europe is a double tragedy. Because already at the airport, corrupt police officers know the names of the people concerned.

150 € from the IOM, 50 € from Austria, that is the money that is supposed to save lives. And a list of available "hotels" where the returnees can hole up for 14 days in their shock, left alone with their retraumatisation, their extreme fears. Many of them have been in Europe for 4 years and are no longer able to deal with this parmanent threat, with this fear for their lives.

Phone call with H.

Quietly, whispering in panic that someone might hear him in the corridor of the hotel, he tells me that he has no idea what to do next. It is Wednesday, he was baptised in Austria by the R.C.H. Church. Church in Austria and he knows as well as any of us that being a Christian in this radical Muslim country can mean his death.

He has no identity card or other documents, a momentary escape to another country is not possible at the moment. He cannot return to his town, radical groups dominate events, knowing that some people already know that he is a Christian would be his death sentence.

I ask him to go to the authority and get a taskira, without it the young man is immobile. He cannot even withdraw money, which we want to send him via Western Union.

H. reports: Like everywhere else, there is a security man in front of the authority. And like most of these people, he is firmly anchored in the corrupt system. With the instinct of malicious people, he immediately recognises that H. urgently needs documents. So H. is first rudely rejected by him. H. asks, discusses and at some point the man names the sum that would be necessary to even enter the public building. I don't need to mention that the taskira is still a long way off.

Not in possession of this sum and desperate, H. leaves this place and returns directly to the shelter. A great challenge for us as well. This young man was perfectly embedded in a peaceful community here, relieved that he can finally live in dignity and freedom, without fear, without corruption with possibly fatal consequences if one rebels against it. And now I should tell the boy to take his last money and offer it to the security man? Without Taskira, H. can't move a millimetre, can't withdraw money, and after 14 days of accommodation, he is standing on the street with nothing.

In the afternoon of the next day, the next real threat. It is Friday, a holy holiday. Everyone flocks to the mosque to pray, to listen to the fundamentalist, vicious imams who, apart from their own benefits, are only out to bring people into this bloody dependency. Men knock and call to come to prayer. H's report is like that, I can't really find a word for it. He hides quietly as a mouse under his blanket behind a closed door, drenched in sweat, and waits until the men leave. He tells me later on the phone that he can never go to a mosque again because he is a Christian. He had been advised to deny this. It is difficult when journalists publish his picture all over Austria and the fear that someone will recognise him is breathing down his neck. The arms of these (allegedly religious) criminals are long, thanks to the internet Europe is only 1 second away. Besides, H. thinks he can't bring himself to be in a place where he has to deny his faith and where only fear and terror are spread. Austria, we are responsible for all this! I ask myself how much more humanity can our civilisation bring?

In the evening H. goes into the dining room. Six men, employees of the hotel, come to him. They tell him to go and wash, that he is dirty and should do his prayers, that religion is no fun. H. replies that he is going to his room now and will do so. Danger, fear of death and humiliation. Civilised people call this psychological torture!

Last night was a difficult time for me too. What consolation is there to offer? We, sitting in a warm living room, in a peaceful country? Say, have courage? It would be a betrayal and hardly surpassable in cynicism. I try hard to listen, otherwise at a loss.

In deep sadness that the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior treats people in this way, in anger that the federal government allows such a thing to happen, in horror that a person who has done nothing wrong, completely devastated, deported by us, is sitting in a brutal war-torn country.......

I decide to advise him to go to the authorities tomorrow and play this brutal game. I am deeply ashamed to advise H. to offer the security man his last money to get the taskira, I am deeply ashamed to live in a country of plenty whose leaders trample on people's basic rights and hand young people over to this psychological and real hell on earth without batting an eyelid and babbling about the pull effect.

Now I'm waiting for H.'s report on whether this action was successful, because the most important thing is to get him to safety. I sincerely hope that we succeed! The psychological injuries, the retraumatisation caused by this irresponsible decision will accompany him and all other returnees for the rest of their lives.

I ask the Austrian Federal Government to commission the Minister of the Interior to carry out a new country identification of Afghanistan as soon as possible. We all have the obligation to take action against these deportations to a country at war with our means!

#StopDeportationToAfghanistan #AfghanistanIsNotSafe #HumanRights #Dignity #Safety #Converts

http://www.fairness-asyl.at/, https://www.ecoi.net/de/laender/afghanistan/themendossiers/allgemeine-sicherheitslage-in-afghanistan/, https://www.vaticannews.va/de/kirche/news/2020-02/oesterreich-afghanistan-kirche-fluechtlinge-politik-glettler.html,