The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) brought an injunction against the Austrian government to stop the deportation of an Afghan national, claiming the security situation in the country is currently too unstable.
Austrian had rejected the Afghan’s asylum claim and planned to deport him before the European court’s ruling.
The Austrian Interior Ministry denied the ruling is a blanket ban on all deportations to Afghanistan, but the Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung noted that the court’s reasons were not specific to the individual asylum seeker’s case but were based on a general concern about security in Afghanistan, which has caused several other countries to stop deportations to the country.
The Interior Ministry noted that the ban on that individual’s deportation to Afghanistan would last until the end of August, but other cases will be looked at on an individual basis.
Several European Union member-states have already stopped deportations to Afghanistan, including Sweden, which halted all deportations last month.
Swedish authorities released some rejected asylum seekers from detention centres, despite their deportation orders still standing.
Patrik Engström, head of the National Border Police Section, claimed that not all of the Afghans in detention had been released and that those who had been set free into society would be obliged to check in with police at regular intervals, at least in theory.
Deportations to Afghanistan have become a major topic of discussion in Austria in recent weeks following the alleged rape and murder of 13-year-old Austrian girl Leonie, allegedly by four migrants from Afghanistan.
Two of the suspects had previously been handed deportation orders dating back several years but, despite having committed crimes in Austria even after their deportation orders, they had remained in the country.