Seeking asylum in Austria Over recent years the number of applications for asylum in Austria has been falling. In 2002 there were 39,354 applications, compared with 32,359 in 2003 and 24,676 in 2004. There are no official statistics yet for 2005.    In October 2003, the conservative coalition government introduced a package of asylum laws allowing officials to decide within just 72 hours whether asylum seekers will be granted permission to stay or be sent back to their home countries. The laws have been heavily criticised by Christian and non-Christian NGOs.     Some years ago Austria’s official refugee camps were put in the hands of a German commercial company called Homecare. Since then there have been many reports about refugees’ poor living conditions, criticisms from refugee aid organisations of the policy of separating couples and families and allegations of mistreatment of refugees by the police. If an applicant’s application for asylum is turned down (as most are) they can lodge an appeal and stay in the country while it is processed. But many prefer to simply “disappear” rather than face returning home.

AUSTRIA – Policeman Josef Reiter has a lot of good stories to tell about changed lives. He can tell you about Zlatan, for example; originally from Bosnia, Zlatan served four years in Krems-Stein, a large prison in Lower Austria. Now living in Croatia, he has attended a Bible School and is involved in evangelistic work.

Another story is about a Romanian prisoner Josef had contact with. After some years the man was deported and Josef learned that he had come to faith. Together with some fellow Christians, he has now been involved in planting a new church in Romania!

When he is on leave from the police force Josef frequently gives up his time to go to prisons with a team of other volunteers to put on Christian talk-and-music presentations for the prisoners. They also distribute New Testaments, Selections and calendars, sometimes organising their work to complement prison-run Alpha Courses.

“I have been enriched so much by the Lord, I can’t stop this ministry!” he says. “I have to continue!”

Josef himself became a Christian in 1983, through the preaching of a Finnish pastor in a local Pentecostal church in Lower Austria, where he worked. He immediately felt called to help with the church’s youth work. Nowadays he lives in the province of Carinthia, in southern Austria, and is head of Teen Challenge Austria, a Christian drug rehabilitation and prison ministry.

Choir in prison

Inevitably, his ‘day job’ overlaps with his prison ministry. Once, in his police role, he had to pick up three escaped prisoners. Not long afterwards he took a choir of young Christians to perform in a prison at Christmastime, and had the opportunity to share his testimony with the same three men.

In this ministry, he finds the Austrian Bible Society a valuable partner. He regularly places orders for Scriptures in about 20 languages and the Bible Society can usually offer them to him at a highly subsidised price.

Over the years the Society has distributed a large number of Scriptures to people like Josef, to prison chaplains, prison aid organisations, and prison libraries – not to mention individual prisoners who have asked for a personal copy of God’s Word in their own language. And thanks to him, that side of our work is still developing.

Josef recently came to the Austrian Bible Society premises in central Vienna for the first time, to pick up about 100 English Scriptures at no charge.

“I am so glad about the Austrian Bible Society and the wide range of foreign-language Scriptures they offer,” he said. “The partnership with the Society helps me a lot!” His wife Edith came to the Bible Society offices with him, and in the Society’s visitors’ book they wrote, “If we can give God’s Word to people, we experience joy in our hearts! Thank you and God bless you.”

Having heard about our recent visit to the refugee camp at Traiskirchen and the Scripture distribution at the International Teams meeting place there (see World Report 404), Josef was eager to learn more about our work among refugees and offered his help to get access for us to the so-called “Schubhaft-Anhaltezentren”, special detention centres where refugees who have been refused asylum are held before they are deported.

Shortly afterwards, he contacted the Bible Society to say that a detention centre in Vienna, not far from the Bible Society, would welcome a visit from us.

Policeman

So on June 21, I and the two other Bible Society staff, Claudia Weber and Karin Kienzl, duly went to the recently renovated prison. Our contact there, policeman Martin Schlossnickl, who is responsible for the prison library, welcomed us warmly. He gratefully accepted 50 English Bibles and some smaller consignments of Scriptures in French, Georgian, Russian, Romanian and Serbian.

“Quite often in the past refugees have asked for a Bible,” he told us, “but I did not know that there was a place where I could get Scriptures. I am so glad that you from the Bible Society have now approached me!”

We spent some time talking to Martin and two of his fellow policemen. They seemed to appreciate our visit. The centre holds 280 or so young male refugees, most of them from West Africa, and the policemen shared their fears about the high number among them who are HIV-positive or infected with Hepatitis-C.

Brutality

“In the past we have experienced attacks,” they said. Reports about the physical brutality of police against refugees made by NGOs such as Amnesty International give a poor impression of every policeman working with refugees, they told us.

“Nobody cares for us here in this special prison,” they said. “We feel lonely here.”

Surprisingly, they invited a small group of detainees to come to the meeting room to talk to us and receive a personal copy of the Scriptures.

We were amazed by the knowledge of the Bible that four young Nigerians, in particular, showed. “We have the words in our hearts,” said one of them, “but it is so good to have a copy of God’s Word, so that we can read it together and share and pray.”

The policemen in turn were glad to see the joy on the refugees’ faces. And the question came up of whether some German Bibles would also be available for the police themselves. So the next week, Karin Kienzl, our freelance PR assistant, paid another visit to the prison and again was overwhelmed by the deep joy the Bibles brought – not only to the refugees but also to the men who guard them.

The relationship between the Bible Society and the Alsergrund detention centre, in Vienna’s 8th district, will continue. Thanks again to Josef Reiter, we are planning a visit to another similar centre, where female refugees are held. (WR 406/27 - 11.06) [3 photos]