10.12.2019 International Human Rights Day. I endorse the words of my dear colleague, Christoph Riedl/Diakonie Österreich "NOTHING is sacred to them anymore" from the bottom of my heart!
What human rights are worth will be demonstrated tomorrow by the Austrian Federal Government, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), which, as the party forming the government, is emotionlessly sticking to the deportations to a country at war, Afghanistan.
The extent to which this is about a demonstration of power is becoming more and more apparent. The negotiations concerning the predominantly Afghan apprentices are proving to be tough. If, then only under the condition that the apprentices are deported to Kabul immediately after finishing their apprenticeship. The sentence of an ÖVP representative "....they can then use the excellent training there (in Afghanistan)" can hardly be surpassed in cynicism, or stupidity. How often have I had to conclude in conversations with political people that they have no idea, especially in this case. And that hurts.
It seems to have escaped their notice that Afghanistan has been at war for decades, that corruption, radical groups and mafia structures dominate the country. Nobody seems to be interested in the fact that about 70% of the deportees leave the country again out of fear and the impossibility of rebuilding their livelihoods. That the country is so devastated that millions of people are afraid to return home unharmed every day, that countless children are unable to attend school, that the number of civilian deaths is anything but decreasing, that the radical Taliban once again dominate entire swathes of the country. And that those women and girls are forbidden any freedom.
People continue to talk about the pulse effect, because they want to bring new people into the country who are willing to learn, because even the former Federal Chancellor has had to take note of what generational research has been warning about for years: Austria is ageing. We need young people. They prefer to recruit other people who have to learn our language first, instead of keeping those who have already learned a lot, who have made friends with Austrian families, who have employment contracts confirming that they would have a job immediately after their stay.
No, they are being deported, because they fled war and terror without asking us, and it is not acceptable to simply let them rest in peace.
It's much easier for politicians to tweet a nice tweet on Human Rights Day, then meet like-minded people at a pre-Christmas punch stand in the city centre, enjoy the Christmas lights and affirm each other in the preservation of Christian values.
When I see the Graz politicians sitting in the churches at the holidays, I realise that they have just as little idea about the message of Jesus as they do about human rights or Afghanistan, a country at war. On the orders of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, alien police with a dog stormed the nuns'/Franciscan nuns' enclosure, arrested a blameless young Afghan who was due to graduate from the School for Social Professions in June 2020. And they continue to talk about laws!
They fail to mention that there are also countries in Europe that do not deport people to Afghanistan because of the given situation. They also conceal the fact that they are the ones who could change the deportation situation. They also conceal the fact that they have long, deliberately kept silent about the Afghan bashing of their former coalition partner, in order to place the responsibility on us citizens in the here and now. "The majority society wants it that way!", one of the most unbearable and irresponsible sentences of lifeless politician puppets.
Many want that, it is true, because the ex-Chancellor and his henchmen have done nothing, nothing against this division, the fear-building, and have never even come close to trying to unite, in the sense of human rights, in the sense of peaceful coexistence.
Human Rights Day, a farce!
After decades of ÖVP, SPÖ, the Greens, etc. in parliament, we still have to talk about child poverty, but in reality it is not enough to do anything!
After decades of this political constellation, the climate is in a bad way, but the economic sponsors are becoming more and more generous and after decades of this political constellation and the enormous influence that the ÖVP also has in the EU, we sign treaties in which we pledge to pay billions of taxpayers' money to the corrupt Afghan government so that we can deport them to a country at war! Carefree, without conscience.
Human Rights Day?
Costs me, please forgive me, a mild smile. And it leaves me with more than a bitter taste in my mouth. I join the many heartless phrases of politicians *never forget*, *fighting child poverty*, *Christmas presents that money can't buy*, etc.. In none of these topics can I see seriousness, sincere empathy and Christian values, neither in thinking nor in doing!
And that is exactly why I will cook for my children and boys tonight and consider myself lucky that despite their youth they understand what human rights mean in practice, how to get their rights and how to live to ensure human rights in their environment. And then we will light a candle together and think about and mourn all those whom Austria unscrupulously deports to Afghanistan, a country at war.
Tonight, the early morning of Human Rights Day!
Comments 11
To all politicians: Please show humanity and stop the deportations to the war country Afghanistan!
Author
Thank you very much for your testimony!
Please ev also write to politicians personally. Civil society pressure can move mountains, thank you very much, Doro.
It's unbelievable!
And may no one believe that this cynical harshness and coldness will pass us by without a trace.
Austria is damaging itself permanently.
No more deportations to Afghanistan and other countries at war.
This is unworthy of a civilised country.
Author
Thank you for this clear contribution, which also contains much feeling and wisdom for our community!
These atrocities that we inflict on supposed "strangers" will not leave us unscathed either.
None of us can be responsible for these actions and the consequences, unworthy, exactly!
https://noe.orf.at/stories/3025350/
One reads this and believes oneself either transported back decades or catapulted into a future in which the law of the strongest is the measure of all things. And again and again the same flimsy, cynical excuse and, above all, knowingly false statement that one cannot act otherwise for legal reasons.
Not true! And those responsible know it. THERE IS NOT A SINGLE LAW in Austria that would force any authority to automatically deport people whose asylum application has been decided negatively.
Under current law, there is the possibility of granting a humanitarian right to stay. Only the (political) will to do so is missing. What is going on in the minds of people who hound a young person who is trying with all his might to build a new life here as if he were a dangerous felon? That is not justice, that is pure malice and perfidy.
Author
You say it, dear Robert!
Pure arbitrariness, pure demonstration of power!
The good news is that Zia will not be deported tomorrow.
The sad news, what a shock, what retraumatisation.
And all just to show who has the power.
Inhuman, visionless and cruel!
#StopDeportationToAfghanistan Afghanistan is a country at war.
Dear Doro,
I read your lines again and again. In these thoughts, in these words, in your loving view of your world, I feel a great deal of pain, a great deal of sadness and also a great deal of anger. Yes, I don't know you, I met you once very briefly, I just exchanged a few words and yet there is something in this text that touches me.
There is a person who suffers from the façade of his world, who hears the messages of the infinite love of Christianity and does not understand why people remain so untouched. They huddle close to you in seemingly holy halls in pews and witness the centuries-old ritual. Yes, witnessing, somehow being there. They are there perhaps to be seen, but also perhaps to experience something of the mystery they call God.
Your text stands as a warning in a time in which we humans believe we have replaced the Almighty. Everything is possible, now and immediately the world has to function the way my belief system, my ideology, my movement, my interest group, my bank account or my (apparent) power wants it to.
"The law must remain the law!" or "We will preserve the rule of law!", how often have I heard or read these words in recent weeks from decision-makers, executors of instructions, public officials and also the man or woman in the street. Your text seeks out those who hide behind these words and tells them bluntly to their face: "I have found you!" I have found you in your fear, in your narrow valley, in your doggedness and in your delusion of wanting to stop the world. I have found you and you know that I have found you, but the head is still in the sand and the ostrich thinks it is not seen.
Yes, we talk about "poverty", about "violence (against women)", about "ageing", about "foreign infiltration" and about "housing shortage". All these buzzwords slay the truth and want to slay the real opportunities and the positive energy that lie in these challenges in one fell swoop.
We need people like you to look behind the facades and shout out "I found you!" Please go ahead and challenge what is to be challenged. Wake up what needs to be woken up. Always keep your eyes on the living human being, for he is the highest dignity we know. This dignity is impressively expressed in the human rights. Today we celebrate the day when these words were found, and there are more and more who have also found these words to be true and real.
Let me conclude theologically. Paradise on earth is not yet a reality. The world is in labour pains. It hurts, yet we hope for a happy birth. Therefore, let us celebrate interconnectedness and with it today's birthday of human rights.
Respectful treatment of human rights has a similar hypocritical status here, especially among the highest representatives of the republic, as the treatment of climate and environmental protection, where Austria has just once again received a good slap on the wrist for its policy of beautiful headlines, which by means of message-control allows the gruesome reality to be rewritten and turned into lighthouses.
"Morbus Kickl" has taken root in asylum proceedings up to the highest instances of the legal process.
This, at least, is not only the broad perception of civil society but also the sobering finding of Ronald Frühwirth, one of the best asylum lawyers in this country who closed his law firm a few months ago. Many of his colleagues also lament the fact that judges and, increasingly, supreme court judges are almost falling over themselves to translate the categorical, political "no" to refugees and immigrants into decisions and that "what constitutes human dignity has become palpable".
His colleague Wilfried Embacher takes the same line: "From the outside, everything looks constitutional, but behind the scenes it's all about letting people run into the knife. And the highest courts, where this should be noticed, often don't even look anymore. The result is what counts: the negative decision, the deportation.
There is nothing that all-too-servile cronies of political will fear more than transparency through the focus of a critical public and civil society. We must stay tuned.
Our open, free and democratic society, based on strong fundamental and respected human rights, is unfortunately not an untouchable gift, as forces in politics with a penchant for authoritarianism have made clear in the last two years.
Author
Sincere thanks for your admittedly harrowing, yet so wonderfully powerful contribution!
Heartfelt thanks!
It is so good when people like you and the other readers make such things known here.
It shows that we have people everywhere in our country who think, act and take courage.
I would be very happy to publish your post on my FB page, with reference to you as the author.
I think we should share these lines with many people.
May I do that?
Greetings in solidarity, Doro
I am so sad. Four young Afghan men fled Austria last week. We have, it seems to me, evil laws.
Author
I think no, we have politicians who represent ideologies, no wisdom and no peace policy.
They have tried to ridicule Fridays for Future, they know very well that young people are right, they are trying to criminalise NGOs for human rights and to "shake us down".
It is not the laws, it is the political will!
Let's stay visible together, love will win. Doro