A social organization of the Protestant Church, Dikonia’s Austrian branch has published an urgent press statement about the deportation threat facing a Chechen family in Austria.

According to a press-release from the organization’s refugee service, on April 10, a Chechen family with three children was taken from Carinthia to the capital city of Vienna and will be deported to life under the tyrannical Russian regime. The entire family fled from the Russian occupied Chechen Republic of Ichkeria to Austria in 2007 and has since asked for asylum. The family’s children, Selima and Magomed speak fluent German and are very good students at their schools. The family has no criminal record, they spend extra effort on integrating themselves into their new lives. The father studied intensively for a job, so he could feed himself and his family. Moreover, the Austrian government should grant them refugee status on humanitarian grounds because, the father, Mr. G and his daughter, Samira are severely traumatized. Since their arrival, Mr. G has been in psycotherapy at the Aspis club and Samira, who has stopped talking, is undergoing special treatment at the Children’s Protection Center, Delfi.

Dikonia Austria has pointed out the extremely difficult human rights situation in the Russian occupied Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Dikonia is permanently connected to various human rights organizations in Russia, which have repeatedly said that people have been imprisoned upon their return to Chechnya or have disappeared without a trace. In addition to the security situation, for the returnees it is nearly impossible to access the health care system.

“Every thing indicates that a humanitarian residence permit must be given to this family. Whether the family can meet all the grounds of asylum, in the event of their forced return to Chechnya, will the family live in expected dignity and security? If there is only the slightest doubt, the government should take its humanitarian responsibility and allow them to stay in Austria to create a secure future,” said Christoph Riedl, the director of Dikonia Austria’s Refugee Service.

*Text was written by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco