Suspected push-back case on the Austrian-Slovenian border will be negotiated in Graz on March 2nd
What we demand is that Austrian law, Union law and international law be respected, no more and no less. The law applies to everyone, including the police.
Clemens Lahner, lawyer
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Vienna / Graz (OTS) – After months of rumors, two specific cases became known last autumn in which groups of people who had entered Austria and claimed to have asked for asylum were nevertheless pushed back by the police. One of those affected was able to lodge a complaint; the case will be heard next week in Graz before the regional administrative court of Styria.
Ayoub N. was in a group of seven Moroccans who entered Austria on September 28, 2020. The group was followed by a large police force, tracked down and taken into custody. What happened next is the subject of the upcoming trial. The group claims that their repeated requests for asylum have been ignored. After a few hours they were handed over to the Slovenian police, who in turn took them to Croatia, from where they were deported to Bosnia.
Everyone who enters Austria and applies for asylum has the right to submit an application and to have due process; local police officers have no right to ignore, refuse or anticipate due process of such an oral application.
The upcoming court hearing is also generally relevant as it can help shed light on the hitherto little-known practices of the Austrian police, their role in the numerous chain deportations along the Balkan route. The Border Violence Monitoring Network has now documented hundreds of cases of violence and torture on the Croatian-Bosnian border and the inhumane conditions under which thousands are stuck in the border region have sparked international outrage.
„What we demand is that Austrian law, Union law and international law be respected, no more and no less. The law applies to everyone, including the police.
“, Says Clemens Lahner, lawyer
In 2016, the same judge in Graz negotiated a number of cases relating to push-backs in Spielfeld in the final weeks of the border management there before the official closure of the Balkan route; it ruled in favor of the complainants in the majority of cases. Even then, the negotiations brought to light a whole series of problems and deficits in police practice at the border.
As a direct result of Ayoub’s push-back and the other members of his group, Austrian activists recently set up a continuously manned emergency number called “Push-Back Alarm Austria” to support people on the run.
https://www.facebook.com/PushBackAlarmAustria
Also in connection with this case, NEOS submitted a parliamentary question to the Minister of the Interior, who in his answer also gave figures on rejections to the borders to Hungary and Slovenia in 2020. In 2020 alone, 514 people were handed over to the Slovenian police at the Styrian border; almost 100 of them come from known unsafe countries such as Syria, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, etc.
Hearing before the State Administrative Court of Styria
Observers and press welcome. Due to the Covid regulations, the seats in the courtroom are limited.
Date: March 2nd, 2021, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Place: Provincial Administrative Court of Styria, Room G (Burggasse 13)
Salzamtsgasse 3, 8010 Graz, Austria
Inquiries & contact:
Birgit Roth (Push-Back Alarm Austria / Border Crossing Spielfeld)
#+43-664-1553850
Petra Leschanz (Push-Back Alarm Austria / Border Crossing Spielfeld)
+43-660-6747540
Email: pushbackalarm-austria@riseup.net
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