Re: <nettime> EU states "expel" 170,000 by air in 1999

[itcz <cs@t0.or.at>]

> Austria        20,207 minus 1 (died on transport)

today, http://www.unhcr.ch released a report that criticizes austria for
its asylum politics in the first half of this year. according to this
report, the austrian state would steadily redraw from his responsibility
to care for asylum seekers. unlike to e.g. germany or belgum, the asylum
seeker's right to receive support from the state (accomodation, health
insurance, financial support) depends on whether a state-related
organisation cares for him/her or not. this number has decreased for 30%
in the last 6 months whereas the number of asylum seekers has only
decreased for 15%.

as a result, more and more refugees become homeless, the asylum-trials are
then automatically closed (a definite break of the geneva-convention).

furthermore it's criticized that children seeking asylum have to wait for
the decision of their asylum-trial in prison and that some cases of
asylum-seeking had not been forwarded by the border police.


the combination of these two reports seem to be an alerting signal for
future asylum seekers. already in the last years asylum *politics* didn't
really exist in austria. what could be filed under politics was basically
driven by the fear that the freedom party could win the next
elections. their demands (e.g. *auslaender-volksbegehren*) were silently
put in practice by social-democratic ministers for internal affairs that
were in most cases kind of proud of thier good relationship to dominant
right-conservative boulevard-media (e.g. neue kronen zeitung) on the one
hand and the freedom party on the other. for example the last minister for
internal affairs, karl schloegl, announced after the lifting of the
eu-*sanctions* that the relationship between socialdemocrats and the
freedom-party has to be *redefined*. a year ago, the freedom party
discribed him as *our best man in the government*.

the difference between the politics of the former government and the
current is that the asylum politics themselves don't have to be changed
dramatically to meet the demands of the freedom party, but as the state
now more and more redraws from his responsibilities in foreign policies,
the private ngo's who had to overtake these responsibilities now face
dramatic cuts in the financial supports by the state.


the figures from this 1999 survey make it obvious, how far the freedom
party already influenced austria's foreign policy: when looking at the
stats remember that austria is e.g. 9 times smaller than germany!

bigger ngo's on the other hand don't only face dramatic financial cuts but
also a reduction of civil servants (this is decided by the same minister
who is responsable for current asylum policies). smaller ngo's that are 
trying to support asylum seekers in prison and ensure rights guaranted by
the geneva convention are appreciated as enemy of the state, their members
are under police-surveillance therefore.


with an eye on the next local elections at vienna (where the freedom
party will try to sell themselves as opposition to those in power, a
farce of course!) many representants with the general secretary, peter
westentaler, and the candidate for vienneise elections among them already
announced that foreign policy will again become the major theme of their
campaign.


so, not much has changed in the country exept that ngo's will more and
more become non-existent organisations and oppositional politicians in
power will soon start to think about cheaper methods to get rid of
refugees--if previous demands are fullfilled (which is quite easy if 
you are the goverment and play opposition at the same time) it's only 
natural in this populist scheme that you have to demand more next 
time. but let me emphasise once again that the freedom party is 100% free
of any nazi-values, of course...


so don't be afraid if you might find right-extreme parties in your
government soon, that's only a merge of government and opposition and
there's no need to worry!



--
Anti-Deportation Mode.
%betazine -20.206
http://betazine.org/

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