Fast, fair asylum procedures are needed and the capacities of the courts should be increased. “There must be no place in our country for violence against women”, Landau emphasized on Sunday in the ORF “press hour”. Deportations should also remain possible to Afghanistan.
“Sad, angry, speechless”
The death of the girl, who was allegedly drugged and abused by several Afghans, some with criminal records, made him “sad, angry, speechless,” said Landau. He expects the perpetrators to be punished with all the severity of the law. Although there should be no general suspicion against Afghans, it is also not racist to name the statistics, according to which it is a group of young men with a difficult, patriarchal image of society.
It is also clear who is in massive conflict with the law, who is a “security risk” here, has forfeited his right to protection, Landau emphasized. In the opinion of the Caritas president, deportations to Afghanistan are also okay – because the ministry is examining individual cases anyway. In any case, he considers event legislation to be the wrong way to go. The asylum law has been tightened for 20 years anyway. Everyone is entitled to a quick, fair trial.
Video: Caritas President Landau on the asylum issue
After the girl’s death, the Interior Ministry now points to the Justice Ministry and vice versa, Landau criticized the mutual accusations. Instead, the departments should sit down and ask “what do we learn from this”. If, for example, the Federal Administrative Court, which processes asylum proceedings, does not have sufficient capacities, they would have to be increased. One also has to ask where there have been cuts in protection against violence in the past.
Video: That’s what Landau says about the Leonie case
Meanwhile, the FPÖ placed a full-page advertisement at the weekend in which it accused the other parties of not having approved their ten-point plan “to ward off acts of violence by asylum seekers”. Under the charge “These MPs say no to more protection of Austrians from criminal immigrants”, the opposition party lists by name all the mandataries from all parliamentary groups who are present at the vote.
