Erstellt am: 23. 2. 2016 - 15:25 Uhr

"This is Ridiculous. This Is Shameful."

Heinz Patzelt of Austria's branch of Amnesty International slams the government's capping asylum applications.

Amnesty International's Austrian branch has just released it's annual human rights review, with the group's general secretary calling the government's response to the refugee crisis "hysterical and ridiculous."

Heinz Patzelt told me today that the population of Austria had shown great humanity and solidarity - particularly with the Train of Hope initiative, but that the elected politicians had not matched that spirit.

Marcell Nimführ

Not mincing his words, Patzelt told me the government's response to influx of refugees had been "hysterical." I asked him to specify what part of the government's response had annoyed him the most:

Heinz Patzelt: This ridiculous idea of saying that we only can manage 80, not 800, but 80 asylum applications per day. It’s a number which was much higher in the last years – not only in the last year, but in the last decades, and that’s the clear right of refugees to have an asylum procedure with a clear decision, yes or no. The idea of limiting it to 80 people [per day] at the border is so ridiculous, is so poor, is so weak, this is shameful.

Do you have any sympathy with the argument I’ve heard Austrian politicians make that it’s a small country of nine million people, which took in tens of thousands of people over the last 12 months, but now the limit has been reached of the capacity of the country to care for these people?

Really, the Austrian politicians are twisting all human rights arguments. They are establishing a system like we should be forced to do the job of others – that is not true. It’s just a clear rule: Austria has to do its job. Not compensate for Hungary’s failing, for France’s failing, for Great Britain’s failing.

That’s what you mean when you talk about a “domino effect”?

Exactly, and a government actively promoting playing dominoes with human beings, to the barbed wire borders in Macedonia, in Serbia, in Croatia, is so far away from any understanding of human dignity – and the Austrian population is not following that. It’s our politicians who are too afraid to clarify basic principles.

Marcell Nimführ

Like you, I remember the scenes at the Westbahnhof, with a lot of people willingly helping, showing their solidarity, showing their spirit of human rights, on the other hand, if you read internet forums or readers’ letters, there seems to be a real palpable fear of the situation of so many people arriving in Austria. Doesn’t the government have to listen to the fears of the voting public?

We all know how social media works. It’s a very powerful tool, but if you are able to do it, it’s quite easily controlled by some very strong and loud voices. And I was at the Westbahnhof, I was at the Südbahnhof, I was with these wonderful guys and girls from Train of Hope, who really gave direct, committed, qualified help. Then there were people posting under anonymous conditions in Facebook – ugly, lying stories, which of course a lot of people followed because they just don’t know. And what I expect from a government is to be a stronghold against this populism.

So what you’re saying is that what you want from our leaders is that they should lead public opinion?

We fail in management. Our government is not able to manage a demanding situation, and our government has lost every single part of political leadership. This makes me so sad, because Austrians don’t want to break rules; we are happy that we have the rule of law in Austria.