When I saw Dimitri* for the first time, I thought he was 40 years old. He staggered into our office in Vienna on a Friday afternoon in May, just a few minutes before the refugee counselling service where I was working was about to close for the day. Dimitri asked for food and we gave him one of the yoghurts a supermarket had donated to us. Dimitri then handed us his papers and asked for help. He had just been released from detention prior to his deportation back to Chechnya because he had been on hunger strike for 14 days. The police then let him go, giving him the address of our refugee project. Dimitri had nowhere else to go. While we were debating where we could find him a place to stay for the night, he fainted in the foyer of the office. It took us almost half an hour to convince him to go to the hospital with the ambulance. He was scared they would take him right back to prison. When he was gone, I looked at his papers more closely: he was 21.

Stories like these occur every day in Austria. The process of seeking asylum is tedious, and the majority of applications are refused. Like the United Kingdom, asylum seekers have to report to one of three nation-wide ‘initial arrival centres’, which fulfils a similar function as the UK Border Agency. The applicants have a screening interview upon which it is decided whether they will be admitted to apply for asylum. According to the Dublin convention, refugees have to seek asylum in the first EU country they reach – and they are not allowed to apply twice.

I don’t know what happened to Dimitri, but it is likely that he was being detained because he had applied in Poland before. EU border countries such as Poland, Greece and Spain have to deal with a relatively high number of applications. This results in people being refused asylum hastily, and these refugees fleeing to other central European countries to escape deportation – such as Austria. Nearly 16,000 people sought asylum in 2009 – approximately 2 applications per 1000 people. Compare this to the UK, where the number is a mere 0.5. The majority in both countries are refused: both the British and Austrian acceptance rates stand at around 30%.

Once admitted to the application process, it can take years until a final decision is reached. This is not only due to slow court proceedings, but also because refugees are allowed to appeal and reapply. To be recognised as a refugee according to the 1951 United Nations Convention, they have to prove that they have reason to fear persecution in their home country because of race, religion, nationality, membership of a social group or political opinion.

The real tragedy begins when asylum is refused: The affected lose their accommodation, provided by the government, and can be detained and deported any moment. Naturally, they go into hiding or escape detention by refusing food, such as Dimitri. Dimitri was released because he was ‘unfit for prison’. The authorities let private refugee shelters such as the one I worked at care for him – until he would be fit enough for detention again. Another recent tragic case in Austria was the one of two eight-year-old twins from Kosovo, who were taken from a private shelter to be detained and deported – while their mother was still being treated in a Viennese hospital.

Being homeless is a fate tough enough on its own. But being homeless, while illegal in the country, denied work and fearing imprisonment is unimaginably stressful – and legalised by the authorities. Can this be right? I never met Dimitri again. He’s probably back in Chechnya, or living in hiding in Austria or another EU country. After having escaped out of prison and into homelessness, I wonder whether he still believes in the power of law.

* Name changed by the author.

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