Racism Report 2003 - Zara

Page 32 Cases: Police Racism Report 2003the vicinity of an aeroplane. The Schwechat Police HQ is confronted with the fact that numerous illegal immigrantsattempt to enter the country via Vienna Airport. Their procedure demonstrates a high degree of criminal organisationand logistics. Most illegal immigrants destroy their travel documents after arrival but before the border control andclaim to the authorities that they cannot remember with which aeroplane or which carrier they arrived. As a result,it is made impossible for the authorities to turn back those people who do not fulfil the requirements for permissionto enter the country under the immigration regulations. It is in accordance with international, but also national law,that carriers are obliged to take back at their own cost any persons who are not permitted to enter the country. Tomake the circumstances more clear, may we point out that in October 50% of all illegally smuggled immigrants wereunknown because at the first opportunity they had destroyed their passports or it was not possible to send them backdue to lack of a carrier. Schwechat Police HQ analysed exactly those destinations which were used to bring illegalimmigrants to Austria via aeroplane. Tripoli is one of the top departure points. Therefore in order to be able to fulfilthe legal obligation of immigration law, Schwechat Police HQ sees itself obliged to carry out early border controls.However, this only affects those problem departure points from which passenger arrive at Vienna-Schwechat Airportfrom which there is increased occurrence of people-smuggling and matters relevant to immigration. Even thoughthis account is no explanation for a form of behaviour which you feel to be socially intolerable, it should establishits necessity in principle, so that a security service can effectively fulfil its legal duties.“At the request of the R. family ZARA wrote another letter pointing out that Austrian law also does not considersubjective feeling per se to be irrelevant. Particularly in the field of respect for human dignity, for example § 5 theso-called „Guidelines Regulation“ (BGBl 1993/266 idGF) states that officers of public security services „are to refrainfrom anything which is capable of arousing the impression of prejudice or which could be perceived as discriminationon account of gender, of race or skin colour, of national or ethnic origin, of religious belief, of political opinion or ofsexual orientation.“ Thus at least the letter of the Security Police Law does indeed attach considerable importance to‚feelings‘ and ‚impressions‘. As the Constitutional Court has stated in what has become a continual series of rulings,there is no individually enforceable claim to „friendliness“ on the part of intervening executive officers. However, thehuman dignity of those persons affected by the police action is also to be safeguarded. The events described by thewitnesses in this concrete case very clearly left several people with the impression that an additional official actioncarried out in a brusque manner accompanied by a high degree of aggression was only targeted against persons witha „foreign“ appearance. Such official action is in any case basically capable of offending the human dignity of thoseaffected since on account of an additional check, which in addition was carried out „as if looking for criminals“,uninvolved witnesses were given the impression that the persons dealt with by the officers were dangerous, or in anycase not to be treated with the normal respect accorded to others. ZARA subsequently asked for another statementparticularly relating to the question of what was being done to prevent similar occurrences in future.On 7 January 2004 the Federal Ministry of the Interior answered ZARA: „(...) However, in the investigations carriedout by the Schwechat Federal Police Headquarters no reasons could be seen to justify misconduct of officers andthereby disciplinary procedures against the officers cited in the complaint. Regardless of this the FMI also attemptsto provide service-oriented law enforcement and is also ready to be responsive to the wishes of the public. (...) FMIhas long recognised this psychologically sensitive problem area as part of its responsibility. The themes under discussionhave for some time been worked through and discussed as part of the standard training and particularly in theperiodically arranged seminars, conferences and staff interviews which all members of the executive attend. The FMIregrets the unpleasantness which Ms. R. and Prof. R. felt and asks for understanding for the fact that despite all criticismof the border control officers, their legal duty must be a priority and in the view of the investigating authoritiesthis was carried out in accordance with the regulations. Best regards, on behalf of the Federal Minister (...)“141142P., born in Nigeria, currently seeking asylum in Austria, was insulted by a passer-by: „Shit Kanak, go backMr.Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeithome to the jungle“: Mr. P. called the police, who arrived after a short time. As Mr. P. wanted to explain the situation tothem he was told he should simply move along. The police officers took neither Mr. P.‘s details nor those of the aggressor.ZARA contacted the complaints officer responsible and described the incident. The officer said that incidents like thishappened several times a day and it was completely proper how the two officers behaved because it cannot be establishedwho began and it is one person‘s word against another‘s. Mr. P. therefore does not wish to take the matter further.29 March 2003 at around 21:00 there was a knock on the door of Mr. and Mrs. A.‘s flat. Two policeOnZivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus-Arbeitofficers checked their papers (Mr. A. is a Hungarian citizen who has lived in Austria for four years) and asked whereMr. A. had been the previous evening, because there had been a burglary nearby. Mr. A. told the policemen thathe had been at home in his flat and that his wife was a witness. Mr. A. had the impression that the police officerswere only checking him because he was the only migrant living in the building. None of the other residents wereasked. The ZARA counsellor contacted the police officers responsible and discovered that all the other residents inthe apartment building had been asked but that Mr. A. had not been home until the evening. Mr. A. was informed