Good - nay, excellent - news for once

[azdak]

Tawab, the last of our four refugee lads, had his asylum hearing yesterday. To avoid keeping you in suspense I shall say straight out that it was recommended he be granted full asylum, but our celebrations were all the greater because this was anyting but a foregone conclusion. The was in Wiener Neustadt, which has a reputation as a hotbed of anti

Comments

[heliopausa]

I'm very, very glad! and best wishes for the decisions still to come. :)

[azdak]

Thank you! I have learned to split myselves into two halves, a half that is braced for a negative result and all the things we have to do if that happens, and a half that believes in a positive result and will do whatever it takes to achieve that. Yesterday showed just how much that can pay off.

[grondfic]

Oh this is utterly fabulous. The best news I've read this month in a world gone completely horrible.

*fingers crossed* for Akbar and Elkhom and congratulations again on your efforts for these young people.

(*fingers crossed* also for the second outcome of the Presidential circus re-election)

[azdak]

I have to admit, I'm a lot less optimistic about the election that I was about Tawab's chances. I can only hope that enough of the Austrian population thinks Trump's a clown to be unimpressed by Hofer being impressed by him.

[sartorias]

That is wonderful!

And I hope that this experience will help those narrow minded bureaucrats look past their blinkers and consider others fairly.

[azdak]

That thought crossed my mind too! If he could realise he was wrong about Tawab, he might look on the next person more kindly.

[nineveh_uk]

Fingers crossed. It does happen with some people.

What fantastic news for Tawab, and for you. It's one thing to have a strong case and quite another to convince a hostile person of it. Hopefully your experience with this, horribly stressful and upsetting as it has all sounded, can also help the other people who want to support their refugees, though I fear that it sounds like the biggest help might be somehow getting as many cases as possible not heard in Wiener Neustadt.

Fingers crossed for Akbar and Elkhom, too.

[azdak]

I don't really have much faith that it will change anything. The meeting in Langenzersdorf was depressing in that we talked to two young couple - one with an adorable, smiley baby of 4 months - who have interviews at Wiener Neustadt over the next couple of days, and although we could help them feel more prepared, I knew that it was too late to achieve anything objectively constructive. But the volunteers in Langenzersdorf are brilliant - they have decided that the best way to help as many people as possible is to teach "interview tactics" in the German classes to help the Afghans understand what the questions are really asking for and how they can tell their story in a way that sounds convincing to Austrians (eg. don't be cavalier about dates. Afghans aren't anywhere near as obsessed with dates as we are. Even Tawab, when first asked when the TV interview took place, said "In 2015". To a European, that answer is vague to the point of sounding like a lie. In the end, we were able to work out approximately when it must have happened by

[asakiyume]

That is wonderful news--I'm glad even in an anti-immigrant city, Tawab's case couldn't be dismissed. Also, how brave both Tawab and his father were with their art and voice.

I'm sorry about the dim prospects for Elkhom and Akbar--I hope that somehow they do get asylum; I'm glad there's the opportunity for an appeal.

[azdak]

I really wish I could meet Tawab's father and mother. They sound quite wonderful - they're firm believers in equal rights for women, too. Tawab's father was beaten up (at a literary festival, of all places) because he heard a group of Islamists saying that girls shouldn't be allowed to go to school and was so angry that he stood up and recited one of his poems that said he hoped Afghanistan would get rid of Muslims like them.

[elisi]

This post was absolutely the ray of sunshine I needed. <3

And bless you forever for the work you do.

[azdak]

It isn't work when it's family :-) I'm so glad it made you happy. When Wolfgang rang with the news I discovered I'd been breathing really shallowly for weeks, because suddenly I could breathe properly again. The effect didn't last all that long - the Farage-Trump-Putin-Erdogan-Hofer axis has me in a state of near-permanent anxiety - but it was lovely while it did!

[elisi]

As Angel said: "All I wanna do is help. I wanna help because, I don't think people should suffer as they do. Because, if there's no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world."

[azdak]

I think about Angel a lot these days, specifically the line (which I hope I've remembered correctly!) about how if nothing we do matters, all that matters is what we do.