By EUDO CITIZENSHIP expert Gerd Valchars
Following a report of an allegedly large number of jihadists from Austria in the Syrian civil war (an estimated 80-100 persons), the Austrian Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Integration and the Minister of Justice, all three belonging to the conservative People’s Party (ÖVP), announced plans to strip such fighters of their Austrian citizenship. As a first step, the citizenship act would have to be amended, as the current provisions (articles 32 and 33) only provide for a loss of citizenship by persons serving in the public or military service of a foreign country. The planned amendment would extend this to “persons participating in armed conflicts in a foreign armed group” (“Personen, die sich an bewaffneten Konflikten einer ausländischen bewaffneten Gruppierung beteiligen”) if these persons are dual nationals, as statelessness would be in contradiction to international law. Nonetheless, as a second step the ministers consider extending deprivation also to persons with only Austrian citizenship. Acknowledging the potential conflict with international law they intend to “start discussions with the relevant international institutions”. There seems to be some confusion as to which these relevant international institutions could be since the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Integration mentioned “the EU-level” but neither the UN nor the Council of Europe, which are the International Organisation that have actually adopted the relevant conventions. The Minister of the Interior explained the motivation for the plan as follows: “Austrian citizenship is of great value and must not abused by Islamists” (“Das hohe Gut der österreichischen Staatsbürgerschaft darf durch Islamisten nicht missbraucht werden”).
Until now the Austria law (Art. 32) provides the possibility to deprive a person of his or her nationality if such person enters, on his own free will, the military service of a foreign state. In these cases even statelessness is accepted as Austria declared reservations in this respect when ratifying the UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness in 1972. A second provision (Art. 33) allows for withdrawal of citizenship if the behaviour of a person employed by a foreign state seriously damages the interests or the reputation of the Austrian Republic.
Further measures in the Ministers’ „five point action plan“ consist of withdrawing protection status from refugees fighting in armed conflicts; denying minors the right to leave the EU without the consent of their parents; and creating a “de-radicalisation hotline”.
The proposed measures would need consent by the co-ruling Social Democrats.
Read more in Die Presse, ORF and Krone.
Read a critical commentary regarding the populist aspect of these planned measures in Der Standard.
Compare with the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, New York, 30 August 1961.
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