A teenage asylum-seeker sparked a nationwide search and forced the Austrian Government to recall parliament after going into hiding to avoid deportation.

Arigona Zogaj, 15, a high school student who illegally entered Austria with her parents and four siblings from Kosovo in 2002, disappeared when her family was deported on September 26 after authorities rejected their asylum request.

She has been sending video-taped messages to the Government and letters to the media threatening suicide if her father and siblings are not allowed back. Her mother has been allowed to remain in an Austrian hospital after suffering a nervous breakdown after her daughter’s disappearance.

The Alpine country has in the past been criticised for its strict immigration and asylum laws, but the gripping plea of the teenager has succeeded in doing what years of human rights campaigners failed to achieve, compelling the media and politicians from across the spectrum to take sides with the family and demand a “humane solution” to deportation.

“I want only that we are allowed to live here like before. I do not want to blackmail anyone, but I am serious about committing a suicide,” Ms Arigona said in her address to the public.

But Günther Platter, the country’s Interior Minister, who was facing a no-confidence vote in parliament yesterday and is widely seen to be losing the media battle with the 15-year-old, insisted there was nothing that could be done for the family as they entered the country illegally and were not eligible for asylum.

Authorities are searching for a solution, with the proposals ranging from making an exception by the Supreme Court or declaring a partial amnesty for asylum-seekers who integrate.

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