After an interim injunction by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Austria stopped the planned deportation of a rejected asylum seeker to Afghanistan.
A government spokesman told the Austrian news agency APA on Tuesday, however, that it was an individual case, not a "blanket ban".
The ECHR based its decision on the “security situation” in Afghanistan.
According to a letter from the ECHR to the Austrian government published by the aid organization Pro Asyl on the Internet service Twitter, the Afghan may not be expelled from Austria before August 31st. According to the court, expulsion under the current conditions could constitute a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. A spokeswoman for the ECHR confirmed on Tuesday in Strasbourg at the request of the Evangelical Press Service (epd) that a so-called provisional measure under Article 39 of the Rules of Procedure had been taken the day before. According to the court, the article is mostly used when there is an imminent danger of irreparable damage. The application was made by the Austrian deserters and refugee counseling service for a person affected by deportation,as the organization further announced.
The court also pointed out that Afghanistan had asked the EU in mid-July to suspend deportations for three months.
Finland, Sweden and Norway complied with this request.
According to the human rights organization Pro Asyl, the asylum seeker should be deported in a joint action with Germany.
Pro Asylum sharply criticized the deportations planned in Germany.
The federal government "pulls out all the stops to get rid of the people just in time before the Taliban have also taken Kabul," said Pro Asyl's legal policy advisor, Wiebke Judith.
"That reveals an inhuman attitude."
30 aid organizations have called on the EU to suspend deportations because of the ongoing fierce fighting between government forces and the radical Islamic Taliban in Afghanistan. Germany and Austria continue to reject a deportation freeze.
Fierce fighting continues to rage in Afghanistan.
In the provincial capital Laschkar Gah in the south of the country, government troops fought house-to-house fights with the Taliban on Tuesday.
The capital Kabul was hit by a violent explosion in the evening.
The United Nations called for an end to fighting in urban areas.
An Afghan commander called on the residents of Laschkar Gah to leave the city "as soon as possible".
"I know that it is very difficult for you (...), it is also hard for us," said General Sami Sadat via the media.
"The Taliban are everywhere in the city, they drive through the streets on motorbikes," a resident of Laschkar Gah told the AFP news agency.
According to the ministry, 167 people from Germany have been “returned” to Afghanistan in 2021.