Good - nay, excellent - news for once

[azdak]

Tawab, the last of our four refugee lads, had his asylum hearing yesterday. To avoid keeping you in suspense I shall say straight out that it was recommended he be granted full asylum, but our celebrations were all the greater because this was anyting but a foregone conclusion. The was in Wiener Neustadt, which has a reputation as a hotbed of anti

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[azdak]

I don't really have much faith that it will change anything. The meeting in Langenzersdorf was depressing in that we talked to two young couple - one with an adorable, smiley baby of 4 months - who have interviews at Wiener Neustadt over the next couple of days, and although we could help them feel more prepared, I knew that it was too late to achieve anything objectively constructive. But the volunteers in Langenzersdorf are brilliant - they have decided that the best way to help as many people as possible is to teach "interview tactics" in the German classes to help the Afghans understand what the questions are really asking for and how they can tell their story in a way that sounds convincing to Austrians (eg. don't be cavalier about dates. Afghans aren't anywhere near as obsessed with dates as we are. Even Tawab, when first asked when the TV interview took place, said "In 2015". To a European, that answer is vague to the point of sounding like a lie. In the end, we were able to work out approximately when it must have happened by calculating how long it took him to reach Austria and cross-referencing that with the Afghan elections.) Here I'm optimistic that they'll be able to improve the chances of some of their people, at least the ones who get assigned to Traiskirchen.