A group of Iranian Christian refugees were given two weeks to leave Austria on 19 February after the US Government denied their asylum applications. They now face potential deportation back to Iran.
Around 100 mainly Christian Iranian refugees have been stranded in Vienna for more than a year. They had expected to be allowed to enter the US under the Lautenberg humanitarian programme, which was instigated in 1990 to enable Jews and Christians from the Former Soviet Union to emigrate.
Closing the programme
However, the US Government now appears to be quietly closing down the programme, despite the fact that many of the refugees have relatives in the US and had already been interviewed by the Department for Homeland Security. In one case, family members in the US had been told that their relative would receive a US visa in early 2017, but he has now been rejected.
