Deportation row grips Austrians

Some Green MPs protested during the interior minister's speech

The plight of a 15-year-old Kosovan girl separated from family members has plunged the Austrian parliament into an acrimonious debate about asylum policy.

The opposition Green Party said the country's asylum laws must be changed, demanding a general "right to stay" for well-integrated foreigners.

The conservative interior minister said he would not succumb to "blackmail".

Arigona Zogaj, 15, went into hiding in September. She threatened suicide after Austria deported five family members.

Her threat came in a letter and video, in which she demanded to be reunited with her father and four siblings, expelled after living more than five years in Austria.

Officials later said the girl was being sheltered by a priest in a village in central Austria and her case would be decided by the constitutional court.

'Stupid' policy

Wednesday's special parliamentary session was called by the Greens to protest against expulsions of foreigners who had waited years for a court decision on their asylum applications.

I will not let anyone blackmail or pressurise me Guenther Platter, Austrian Interior Minister

"I consider this policy... inhumane," Green Party leader Alexander Van der Bellen said.

He added that the 2005 legislation was also anti-social and anti-family, because many of the rejected applicants had already got jobs, mastered German and put their children in schools.

"When we deport people who already have jobs here, that is not just asocial but economically stupid," Mr Van der Bellen said.

Protests

Interior Minister Guenther Platter defended the government position on the issue. But he admitted that the current procedures were slow, creating a backlog of asylum applications.

In September, nearly 34,000 cases were outstanding, according to the interior ministry.

A Nigerian man stabbed himself in the stomach on Monday in a square in the Austrian town of Steyr after being denied asylum. He was admitted to hospital, but his life was not in danger.

Referring to the Zogaj case, Mr Platter said: "I will not let anyone blackmail or pressurise me."

He said the family's applications for asylum had been examined and had not met the necessary criteria.

During his speech, several Green MPs waved a banner that read "How many more children do you want to deport, Mr Interior Minister?"

Mr Platter has been under growing public pressure for his tough stance on the asylum issue.

On Tuesday, more than 5,000 people held a protest rally in front of the interior ministry in the capital Vienna.

The parliamentary debate ended with a resolution tabled by the governing Social Democrats and their conservative junior partners, the Austrian People's Party, to create a special court to consider asylum cases next year.