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Austrian Police Conducting Intensive Check on Arabs Living in the Country

February 17, 1982
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
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The State Police are conducting a house-to-house check of the estimated 4,600 Arabs presently living in Austria. Special squads visited about 900 Arabs last week to examine their visas and residence permits. Many were said to have no valid papers.

The check was ordered by the government following renewed threats against the lives of Austrian political figures by an extremist Palestinian group, Al Asifa. Al Asifa was implicated in the attack on the Jewish community center and synagogue here last August in which two persons were killed and 18 were wounded, and in the assassination of Heinz Nittel, a Vienna City Council member, last May.

Arab Ambassadors accredited to Austria were informed of the measures in advance by Chancellor Bruno Kreisky last week. Apart from the diplomatic corps, most Arab residents of Austria are either students or workers, chiefly newspaper vendors. One of the two Palestinian Arabs convicted for the community center attack has been a student in Austria for the past two years.

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