"Did not ask"

Syrian allegedly faked his asylum decision

"No one has ever asked me if I am Turkish."

(Bild: HS, Krone KREATIV)

After fleeing his home country, the 62-year-old did not declare in Austria that he was also a Turkish citizen - so he collected a total of 200,000 euros in minimum benefits from the Republic over ten years. Was he entitled to this at all?

It is about the impressive sum of 197,340 euros that a refugee from Syria is said to have obtained from the Republic of Austria from August 13, 2014 to January 22, 2024. Or is he Turkish? Or both? In any case, the 62-year-old relied on the assistance of a Kurdish-speaking interpreter during the trial at the Eisenstadt Regional Court.

"That's all they asked me"
Because he felt persecuted in his home country, the man allowed himself to be dragged to Europe in 2013. "These people took away all my documents," says the high school graduate. In Vienna, he claimed to be a Syrian citizen. "That's all they asked me."

With a positive asylum decision in his pocket, he ended up in Burgenland, where the jobseeker applied for minimum benefits for himself and his family, which were paid out to him - for almost ten years. That's 1630 euros a month.

In 2017, he was overcome by the desire to visit his mother in Turkey. She was also Syrian, but lived there. The embassy refused the visa until he stated that he had also been a Turkish citizen since 2010. He was given a passport. And one problem: if he had declared this dual citizenship when he entered Austria, he would probably have been sent back to Turkey immediately. So no positive asylum decision, which incidentally was revoked a year ago - not legally binding - and consequently no entitlement to minimum benefits.

The defendant's lawyer presented documents to underline the seriousness of the defendant: Expired passport; military passport; family passport; identity card; Syrian credit card. 

The judge wanted to wait for the negative asylum decision to become legally binding and adjourned the case indefinitely.