These statements from September 2014 are not translated, some of them were in English originally, the German ones are left in German.

What four of the accused (A, B, C, D) say…

…about their currant situation:

A: “Till now, we have been 22 times in Wiener Neustadt, what the state wants to do with us now?
We have so many problems with our families, I don’t have work here.
When I came here, i sold my house. When I go back to Pakistan I have no house. My wife lives in a rented house. Now there have been big floods in Punjab in Pakistan, so many houses are destroyed now because of the water.
Why they don’t give me asylum? I only have a green card.
I don’t have any cent to give to my children. I support the government of Austria. You can give me punishment, but don’t give punishment to my children. How can I support my wife when I go to the Gericht three times a week?!“

B: „When we go to any place for work, they say we are bad character. They say we are Schlepper. We have no asylum.”

C: “When I came to Austria I sold my house in Pakistan. During three years I have not sent one Cent to my home. I have too many problems in Pakistan. If you give me a deport letter I leave Austria.
My brother is dead. In prison, I was not allowed to call my family – why didn’t I get telephone permission? Not one time i could make a call. “

…about the trial and the accusations:

C: “After six moths my asylum has finished and I came to Votivkirche to sleep there. Somethimes I helped some people who were my friends to buy tickets and the police made a story. If the trial was in Vienna, all people would know that the people were in Votivkirche but they start the trial in Wiener Neustadt to break the protest. This is a master plan to break the protest. I got all this problems because I was speaking against the asylum system and injustice. If I helped some people at Westbahnhof, this is not ‘Schlepperei’.”

A: “This paragraph 114 is not good for our health because it destroyed our life. Also, this paragraph is not only a problem in Austria but also in Pakistan because when we go back we maybe get 5 years. I want to help the government of Austria. I was speaking against mafia people in Austria, who were stealing millions of Euros of taxes. I went to financial police, I speak the truth and I have proofs. But they put me to jail. “

B: “Why the police doesn’t have big evidence against us, when they say we helped so many people? Where are the people who say, these people helped me?
In all the countries, the police works together with ‘Schlepper’, in every place, in Serbia, in Macedonia. Where is this police? This is a criminal organisation.”

…about “human smuggling”:

B: “When a person comes to search for asylum, this person must cross the border illegally. People come to safe their life and for a better future. If any person wants to come to safe his life and you want to have close borders, you have to put everywhere a person with a gun.”

…about the prison:

D: “Ich war mit einem Nazi zusammen im Gefängnis. Diese Zeit war ein bisschen schlecht.”

A: “Diese Zeit war schlimm. Ich war mit einem Jungen zusammen in der Zelle, ein Araber. Dieser Mann versteht kein englisches Wort und kein deutsches.
Die Gefängnispolizei war sehr scheiße. Warum? Weil sie mit Ausländern nicht normal reden. Wenn wer was braucht, egal! Sie machen einfach die Türe zu.”

D: “Wenn du zum Beispiel Tabletten brauchst wegen Kopfschmerzen oder Bauchschmerzen oder so, dann musst du zehn Minuten die Klingel drücken, bis sie einmal kommen und dann kannst du sagen, was los ist. Aber dann kommen sie die ganze Nacht nicht mehr.

B: “In prison, I was not allowed to call my family – why didn’t I get telephone permission? Not one time i could make a call. “

D: “Als die ersten Verhandlungstage fest standen, ist ein Wärter gekommen und hat gesagt: ‘Du bist ein big criminal. Du hast so viele Verhandlungstage, das hab ich noch nie gesehen!’”