After calling on Austria and other European countries for an extended ban on deportation for rejected Afghan asylum seekers, the Afghan ambassador in Vienna, Manizha Bakhtari, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry. They were “surprised” by Bakhtari’s statements, “after there had been signals to the contrary only last week,” said the Foreign Office to the APA on Friday.
Bakhtari asked Europe in an interview on Friday morning radio 1 to extend the ban on deportation for Afghan asylum seekers with a negative decision beyond October. In July, the government in Kabul asked to suspend returns for three months. “We are not in a position to take in deportees,” said the diplomat, referring to the security situation, which has been deteriorating since the withdrawal of NATO troops from the crisis country.
A suspension of deportations is not an option, said a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry on Friday. Austria also stated this in a current joint letter from Interior Minister Karl Nehammer (VP) with the Interior Ministers of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece and the Netherlands to the European Commission. The representatives of the Ministry of the Interior and Foreign Affairs would “once again clearly explain” the Austrian position to the ambassador in the meeting at the Foreign Office that was planned for the afternoon.
“Austria is not planning to stop deportation to Afghanistan,” it said on Thursday to the APA from the Ministry of the Interior. From Berlin it was said that a deportation flight that was canceled at short notice on Tuesday would be “promptly” rescheduled. The flight from Munich was canceled on Tuesday evening due to the escalation of violence in Kabul. According to reports, the plane was supposed to land in Vienna and pick up two Afghans to be deported there. Participation in the flight was canceled “due to the message from the German Interior Ministry that Afghanistan is currently not accepting bilateral cooperation in charter operations and is therefore not issuing a landing permit,” said a spokesman on Thursday.
