Deportations from Austria to Afghanistan can resume following a recent decision by the Constitutional Court (VfGH).

The court dismissed an appeal by a young Afghan man, arguing that conditions in the country have improved since the Taliban seized Kabul in August 2021, triggering a humanitarian and economic crisis.

In the wake of the Taliban takeover, the VfGH had temporarily halted deportations.

However, the court has now determined that the security situation in Afghanistan has improved to the point that “a serious individual threat to the life or physical integrity of the complainant as a civilian due to arbitrary violence within an international or internal armed conflict no longer exists.”

The court also noted the appellant’s own description of his family’s economic situation as good before he fled.

The appellant, described in court documents as an “able-bodied man,” left Afghanistan in 2022. His asylum application in Austria was rejected, and although the Federal Administrative Court upheld this decision, he appealed against it.

While this ruling sets a precedent, it does not automatically apply to all Afghan asylum seekers. The Austrian Press Agency reports that the possibility of deportation will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

According to the Ministry of Interior, Austria received 11,644 asylum applications between January and May this year, with 1,142 originating from Afghans.

The peak number of applications occurred in 2022, totalling 112,272, with just over 25,000 filed by Afghans.