Racist Comments in a Ruling of the Asylum Court

Alert DateSeptember 12, 2011 Country: Austria Address: Linz General Type: Racist discourse, Discrimination Racism and discrimination phenomena: Anti-migrant/xenophobia, Afrophobia
Groups affected / Interested in: Asylum seekers, Africans/black people Key socio-economic/institutional areas: Policing - law enforcement Hate speech/Racist Discourse Medium: Other
Victims Data
Victims Nationality/Ethnic Origin Gambian
Victims Gender Male
Victims Age 18-25
Victims Number 1
Fatalities - deaths N/A
Perpetrators Data
Perpetrators Nationality/Ethnic Origin Austrian
Perpetrator Gender Male
Perpetrator Age N/A
Perpetrators Number 2
Extremist/Organised Group Violence No

On September 12th 2011, the Austrian Newspaper “Der Standard” reported on a decision of the Asylum Court: The asylum application of a 25-year-old Gambian man was rejected by two judges. The reasons of this decision were listed as follows: His German language skills were said to be poor, he made no efforts to integrate himself and he would be a huge financial burden for Austria. The fact that he has a 2-year-old child in Austria with his Russian girl-friend was considered to be irrelevant. The judges accused him of exploiting the system and accordingly, they rated his account as implausible.
The choice of words in the explanatory statement has been criticized by legal experts. They stated that there is no space for polemics in a court decision.
The young man’s lawyer complained to the President of the Asylum Court; who promised to talk to the two judges concerned.

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