Leukaemia patient falls foul of Austria ‘burqa ban’

VIENNA: A leukaemia patient wearing a medical face mask in Vienna was stopped under a ban on the full Islamic veil and other face-coverings brought in last year, police admitted.

The 26-year-old man, interviewed by the Vice News Austrian website and identified only as “Valentin”, said that he was stopped last Tuesday.

Doctors had told him to wear his mask to protect his immune system, which had been so severely weakened by a intensive course of chemotherapy and other treatment that he initially had to spend eight weeks in isolation.

“The first thing they asked me was whether I spoke German or whether I was foreign,” Valentin told Vice News, which specialises in stories which might not get into mainstream media.

“When I explained that I was from Vienna, things calmed down a bit. But then they went after my face mask.

“I had asked my doctor about exactly this. But at the time he just laughed and said it would be obvious to anyone why I was wearing it.”

He proceeded to show the police his medication and searched for his blood test results on his phone.

“In the end they believed me,” Valentin said. — AFP