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REFUGEE CRISIS

IMMIGRATION

Refugees to march in thanks in Vienna

A group of refugees is planning a ‘peace march’ on Vienna’s Mariahilferstrasse on September 28th, as a way of showing appreciation for the welcome they have received in Austria.

Refugees to march in thanks in Vienna
Refugees arriving at Westbahnhof station. File photo: Caritas

The march is organised by a group on Facebook called #Danke Österreich which was set up by former Syrian refugees who have been granted asylum in Austria.

In German, Arabic, English and Kurdish, the group invites asylum seekers and people who have been granted refugee status to join them on Monday. “This gesture of love and humanitarian sympathy that you have shown us as migrants can only be met by us with love and gratitude to your country,” the text says.

The group also asks the message to be spread to refugees who have recently arrived in Austria and are living in emergency shelters. More than 1,000 people have already pledged to attend.

The group will meet at Christian-Broda-Platz, near Westbahnhof at 6pm and march down Mariahilferstrasse towards the Museumsquartier.

“We want to say with one voice, thank you,” one of the organisers, Youssef Alyamani, said. The 33-year-old fled Syria in 2008 and has been granted asylum seeker status in Austria. He now runs a construction company in Vienna.

“This will be an opportunity to show that we are peaceful and to bring refugees and Austrians closer together,” he added. Organisers have been clear that it is not a demonstration – which could have played into the hands of the right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ), which attempts to portray refugees as a danger to society.

The organisers say they will be waving the Austrian flag during the march and singing the national anthem, as well as carrying peace flags. “We’re just people who want to live in peace, and not material for political campaigns,” Alyamani said.

However, both the FPÖ and the social democrats (SPÖ) will be using the refugee crisis to gain supporters ahead of the Vienna elections on October 11th.

“(FPÖ leader) Strache will be using this to stir up resentment and reinforce any negative feelings… (Vienna’s SPÖ mayor) Häupl will be trying to appeal to supporters of the Greens, the Neos and even the ÖVP… as well as Christians and Catholics,” political expert Thomas Hofer told the Kurier newspaper.

FAR-RIGHT

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Radical Austrian nationalist Martin Sellner has been banned from entering Germany, it emerged on Tuesday, days after he was deported from Switzerland.

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Sellner, a leader of Austria’s white pride Identitarian Movement, posted a video of himself on X, formerly Twitter, reading out a letter he said was from the city of Potsdam.

A spokeswoman for the city authorities confirmed to AFP that an EU citizen had been served with a “ban on their freedom of movement in Germany”.

The person can no longer enter or stay in Germany “with immediate effect” and could be stopped by police or deported if they try to enter the country, the spokeswoman said, declining to name the individual for privacy reasons.

READ ALSO: Who is Austria’s far-right figurehead banned across Europe?

“We have to show that the state is not powerless and will use its legitimate means,” Mike Schubert, the mayor of Potsdam, said in a statement.

Sellner caused an uproar in Germany after allegedly discussing the Identitarian concept of “remigration” with members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) at a meeting in Potsdam in November.

Reports of the meeting sparked a huge wave of protests against the AfD, with tens of thousands of Germans attending demonstrations across the country.

READ ALSO:

Swiss police said Sunday they had prevented a hundred-strong far-right gathering due to be addressed by Sellner, adding that he had been arrested and deported.

The Saturday meeting had been organised by the far-right Junge Tat group, known for its anti-immigration and anti-Islamic views.

The group is also a proponent of the far-right white nationalist Great Replacement conspiracy theory espoused by Sellner’s Identitarian Movement.

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