At least 7,000 Austrians gathered in central Vienna Thursday evening to protest the imminent expulsion of a Kosovan family of asylum seekers and to call for more humane immigration policies. The fate of the well-integrated Zogaj family has become a symbol of the Interior Ministry's hard-line asylum policy. The family has lived in Austria since 2002. Protesters said the Zogajs and others like them should be allowed to stay on humanitarian grounds, even if they have been denied refugee status. 'We don't need mercy or clemency, but justice and reason,' former science minister Rudolf Scholten told a crowd that organizers estimated at up to 20,000 people. Police counted 7,000. Other speakers criticized Interior Minister Maria Fekter for painting asylum seekers in a criminal light. Thursday's event was the culmination of recent smaller initiatives and protests. In May, demonstrators blocked one of Vienna's main traffic routes in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the deportation of two Nigerian asylum seekers.
DPA
