“Those persons and families whose asylum procedure has been completed, and who have lived in Austria for years and are well integrated, must be granted the right of residence and not a ‘grace and favour’ to remain in the country”: that is the position expressed by the Bishop of Linz, the Right Rev. Ludwig Schwarz, on the so-called “Arigona case”. The affair of the fifteen-year-old Kosovar, who evaded the expulsion order against the whole of his family and illegally remained in Austria – now under the protection of the parish priest of Ungenach -, has in the eyes of public opinion posed anew the problem of asylum-seekers and so-called ‘tolerated’ immigrants. “Asylum and right to residence must not be used for petty political gain or to drum up political votes”, warned Schwarz. “We must never forget that the existence and the chances for life of children, young people and adults are being decided on” in such cases”. “We cannot expect people to integrate themselves in the community if they are then left in an indefinite limbo, while awaiting their asylum application to be completed, and then send them back into a no man’s land after years of waiting”, said the bishop of Linz. “The authorities competent for the final decision ought to be responsible for the Land , they ought to be closer to citizens and to the local communities. If they are not completely to abandon their humanity, they ought in such cases to take the necessary decisions rapidly”, he added. The Bishop of Feldkirch, the Right Rev. Elmar Fischer, also urged greater humanity in the present debate on asylum, emphasizing that “humanity is not an act of grace”. “The authorities – he said – must find a human and fair solution”. “The cases in which families are destroyed are the most upsetting”, he criticized. “The children who are the victims of expulsions are sent towards an uncertain future. The fate of these children cannot leave us indifferent. Humanity must be the criterion of our actions, because we not talking of ‘procedures’, but of persons”, he concluded.
