VIENNA: Austria has deported another convicted Afghan offender to Kabul, sending the 26-year-old man from Vienna through Istanbul on August 31, 2026.
The Afghan national was accompanied during the journey. Austria’s Interior Ministry said he had been convicted three times in the country for serious property and drug-related offences. He spent more than two and a half years in prison and had 20 criminal police records registered in his file.
Authorities also reported that he was involved in further incidents with fellow inmates while serving his sentence, according to oe24.
The deportation became possible after an identification meeting in Vienna in September 2025. During that meeting, a delegation from the Afghan Taliban administration officially confirmed that the man was an Afghan citizen.
According to the report, Austria and Germany are the first European countries to resume direct deportations to Afghanistan and Syria. The policy has remained politically sensitive because of the security and human rights situation in both countries.
Official figures show that more than 8,800 people without the right to remain in Austria left the country during the first seven months of 2026. This amounted to an average of more than 41 departures a day, including around 10 convicted offenders.
More than half of the departures were forced removals, while almost half of the people concerned were convicted criminals, the Interior Ministry said.
At the same time, asylum applications in Austria have fallen sharply, reaching their lowest level in ten years. The number of people receiving basic welfare support has also dropped to around 5,100, the lowest figure recorded in two decades.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner of the Austrian People’s Party said the government would continue its policy of a strict but fair asylum system. He said the approach would help secure what the government calls “negative migration”, meaning that more people leave Austria than enter it.
Behind the figures are individuals facing uncertain futures, divided families and difficult new beginnings. For the Austrian government, however, the latest deportation represents another step in enforcing its tougher migration policy.
