The 18-year-old Afghan who allegedly murdered 13-year-old Leonie lived in a Vienna municipal flat – and collected social benefits, a total of € 56,989. This was despite the fact that he had already lost his status as a “person eligible for subsidiary protection” because of his many previous convictions.
Being of good repute is not a prerequisite for obtaining a Vienna municipal flat, but a clear residence status is. But for the 18-year-old Afghan who, together with his 16-year-old friend, allegedly drugged, sexually abused and strangled 13-year-old Leonie, special rules apparently applied. Not only did he already have a criminal record when he moved into a communal flat, he should not have been in Austria at that time.
The 18-year-old already had eleven police records and three prison sentences on his record – among other things for trafficking in narcotics, dangerous threats and robbery. None of this was a reason for the housing company Wiener Wohnen to withhold a communal flat from him. What’s more, his status as a “person eligible for subsidiary protection” had already been revoked in October 2019 due to his criminal record. However, the decision to send him back, including a six-year entry ban, was not followed by his return home to Afghanistan, but by his moving into the Vienna municipal housing – and that should not really be the case.
Apart from Austrians, EU citizens and third-country nationals with the appropriate residence title can also move into municipal flats – as well as recognised refugees. Only this was not the case for the 18-year-old Afghan since September 2019. The eXXpress wanted to know when the suspected murderer received the municipal flat from Wiener Wohnen. So far, the request has remained unanswered. The fact is that the Afghan could only have been granted his communal flat after his status as “beneficiary of subsidiary protection” was revoked. In order to move in, one has to be at least 17 years old, and the alleged murderer cannot have reached this age until 2020 – according to his own statements.
Thus, the 18-year-old Afghan was living in a Vienna municipal flat without fulfilling the requirements – unless Wiener Wohnen still considers someone who loses his status as a beneficiary of protection because of his many previous convictions to be a recognised refugee.
In 2015, Vienna’s mayor Michael Ludwig ( Social Democratic Party of Austria) – at that time still Vienna’s city councillor for housing – had actually promised stricter access rules for municipal buildings, so that those who have been living in Vienna for a long time would be given preference. However, the basic rules have not changed.
Anyone who wants to move into a Vienna municipal flat has to get a housing ticket, then they end up on the waiting list and wait until a flat becomes available. At the beginning of 2017, there were around 24,000 people on this waiting list. By 2020, the list had shrunk to 11,100 people.
It is not surprising that the Afghan primarily hung around in Vienna. Here, ” those eligible for subsidiary protection” receive 863 euros per month – more than in any other federal province. By comparison, in Lower Austria, Burgenland, Styria and Salzburg they receive between 320 and 365 euros per month. Only in Carinthia can beneficiaries of protection look forward to a similarly high allowance of 844 euros per month.
Each “beneficiary of subsidiary protection” in Vienna thus costs taxpayers 10,356 euros a year. And those who have been entitled to minimum benefits for five and a half years, like the 18-year-old Afghan, have since cost the taxpaying Austrians 56,958 euros. Of course, it was probably not the only source of income for the Afghan citizen. After all, he also dealt in drugs.
https://exxpress.at/mordverdaechtiger-afghane-gemeinde-wohnung-plus-56-958-e-sozialhilfe/