People were reportedly deported to Iraq by plane from Vienna-Schwechat airport on Tuesday morning. Green MPs criticized the “questionable circumstances” and pointed out that there was no repatriation agreement in place with the Iraqi government. The Ministry of the Interior did not initially confirm the incident.
“All repatriation agreements are on my table – we do not know the text of this agreement, let alone have approved it,” said Green human rights spokesperson Ewa Ernst-Dziedzic. On Tuesday evening, she posted a video from Vienna-Schwechat Airport on the X platform (formerly Twitter) and criticized an opaque approach. Up to 40 people would be forcibly taken to Baghdad, including, according to the Greens, a sick woman whose husband had made a positive decision about family reunification. The woman has no papers and no family in Iraq.
You can watch Ernst-Dziedzic’s video here.
A repatriation agreement with Baghdad also failed to reach the Council of Ministers, the politician said. A ‘declaration of intent’ that Interior Ministers Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) and Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) would refer to is not equivalent.
Bürstmayr: Old communications
There was also criticism from Green MP Georg Bürstmayr. Several Iraqi citizens have been taken into custody in recent days and should be deported, he wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday. Some relevant communications are months and years old and therefore the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum (BFA) must actually check whether anything has changed since then.
Here you can see Bürstmayr’s tweets.
In addition, relatives and friends of the detainees were not allowed to visit on weekends despite visiting hours due to a “shortage of staff”. This would have made it impossible for people to say goodbye to them.
The Interior Ministry declined to comment
The Ministry of the Interior declined to comment on the alleged deportations on Tuesday. Repatriations would be neither confirmed nor denied in advance, it was said. In any case, the priority is ‘voluntary departure’. “Only if the obligation to leave the country is not met and no independent departure takes place, will the BFA ultimately initiate a mandatory repatriation.”
On Tuesday evening there was a spontaneous demonstration at Vienna airport. According to the newspaper, several hundred people came to protest ‘today’ against a ‘wave of deportations to Iraq’. This had no influence on flight operations.
The Austrian embassy in Baghdad reopened a few weeks ago. So far, returns have proven difficult as the Iraqi government urges EU countries to provide incentives for the voluntary return of their citizens.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
