“The media is giving our reputation a bad name”: Afghan community and GREEN party complain about the image of Afghans in Austria

With more than 40,000 people, Austria has one of the largest Afghan communities in Europe. It is not only since the cruel killing of young Leonie (13) that Afghans have repeatedly made negative headlines. In fact, they are conspicuous above average in the crime statistics. At an event organised by the Green Parliamentary Club, representatives of the community complained about their negative image. The media is to blame, they said.

“We want to break up the very one-sided debate and show that the Afghan community is much more than just a few boys who attract attention,” said Ewa Ernst-Dziedzic, foreign policy spokesperson for the Greens in the National Council. The bad image is a heavy burden for young Afghans, Zeba Nazari from the interest group of Afghan pupils and students also described at the event. “It is always said that Afghans cannot integrate and that they are all criminals,” Nazari complains.

“It is hard to bear how our reputation is so badly made in the media,” also complained Masomah Regl from the Graz-based association Fivestones. At the same time, the activist criticised the Austrian Foreign Ministry, which had not really shown any willingness to act quickly in the case of family reunifications. She also demanded that the relevant regulations be relaxed in times of crisis and that it should be possible to bring siblings and their children to safety in Austria.

There were also demands regarding the acceleration of asylum procedures as well as the prohibition of deporting Afghan refugees to their home country or to other countries in view of the current situation. Austria should also participate in programmes to accommodate Afghan refugees in different countries, demanded activist Mina Miakhel.

The Afghan ambassador to Austria, Manizha Bakhtari, who formally remains in office, notes that the situation in Afghanistan has led to millions leaving the country or will leave it in the coming months. “This means a new wave of migration to neighbouring countries and Europe,” Bakhtari said. She appealed to welcome these refugees as well as to open our hearts to them.

Looking at the pure numbers, a total of 867 people were suspected of rape in Austria in 2020. Among them were 499 Austrians and 47 Afghans. The latter made up 5.4 per cent of the suspects and nationals 57.6 per cent. The fact that Afghans only make up about 0.5 per cent (6) of the population living in Austria shows that they are overrepresented in this area. A similar result applies to the year 2019: There were a total of 874 suspects in rape cases, 521 of whom were nationals, 59 Afghans. Afghan nationals made up 6.8 per cent of the suspects, nationals 60 per cent.

In 2020, there were a total of 47 murder suspects. 31 of them were nationals and four were Afghans, the Ministry of the Interior said upon request. Afghan nationals thus accounted for 8.5 per cent of all murder suspects, while nationals accounted for 66 per cent. So here, too, it can be seen that they are considerably overrepresented. This was also the case in 2019: There were 77 suspects in total, 30 of whom were nationals and six Afghans. Afghans were represented by 7.8 per cent and Austrians by 39 per cent.

https://exxpress.at/medien-machen-ruf-schlecht-afghanische-community-klagt-ueber-image/