AMMAN, 8 April 2003 — Hundreds of Iraqi asylum seekers have been flooding the Austrian Embassy in Jordan with applications over the past week although Vienna has not changed its laws, Ambassador Heinrich Querner told AFP yesterday. “They just suddenly appeared here to apply for political asylum, although we have not announced anything, did not change anything and did not put in place any new provisions,” Querner said.
The embassy was accepting all the applications but processing them would depend on decisions to be taken in Vienna. “We are in discussions with the Austrian authorities on what to do and we will see. But we will still receive them, we will not reject them,” he said.
On Sunday alone, the embassy received 1,000 applications, Querner said and as he spoke some 100 Iraqis gathered outside the diplomatic mission busy filling out applications for political asylum in Austria, dreaming of a life of “peace and stability” far away from their embattled country.
“We need to rest. We want to live in peace,” said Khulud Saddam, a 21-year-old sales representative who has been living in Jordan for the past three years, helping her family of five with her meager income.
