Austria’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that the country deported a 33-year-old Afghan national on a direct flight to Kabul on Monday.
The individual had spent four and a half years in prison and was identified as an Afghan citizen by a Taliban delegation in Vienna in September 2025.
According to the statement, the deportation was carried out as part of a “zero-tolerance policy towards asylum seekers”, and he was escorted to Kabul
The statement added that his criminal record justified the need for deportation.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said: “We are seeing more deportations than new asylum applications. This development needs to be secured sustainably.”
In 2025, more than 14,000 “criminals and illegal residents” were forced to leave Austria.
In January and February 2026, a total of 2,270 “criminals and individuals with illegal residence” left Austria, while only 768 asylum applications were registered during the same period.
