AUSTRIA
LEGAL AND POLICY CONTEXT
In 2015, the Austrian reception system was put
under pressure due to a significant increase in
asylum applications by unaccompanied chil-
dren. According to Eurostat, 8,275 unaccom-
panied children applied for asylum in 2015 in
Austria, compared to 3,900 in 2016. The majori-
ty of asylum-seeking children are boys between
the ages of 14 and 18. 1 The sharp increase in the
number of asylum applications in 2015 led to
legislative reforms, including the introduction
of t he requirement and assignment to reception
facilities, provisions for setting up reception
facilities for unaccompanied and separated
children and measures promoting foster care.
Asylum seekers are placed according to a quota
system, which stipulates the number of refu-
gees to be taken in by each federal state based
on the size of the federal state’s population. 2
Accommodation and care services are often
outsourced to NGOs or private companies.
Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are
placed in special residential facilities, most
of which are run by NGOs. Daily subsidies
provided to NGOs caring for unaccompanied
asylum-seeking children range between €40.50
and €95. These subsidies are considerably lower
than those provided for Austrian children, even
though asylum-seeking children are entitled to
the same services. 3
The accommodation and care system for
asylum-seeking unaccompanied and separated
children is structured in stages. Upon arrival
unaccompanied and separated children are
placed in state reception facilities under the
Ministry of the Interior. After the asylum
procedure is initiated, children are moved to the
so-called basic care facilities in different federal
states. The type of accommodation offered
should meet children’s individual needs. The
available options include group homes where
one social pedagogue is responsible for the care
of ten children, residential facilities where one
social pedagogue takes care of 15 children and
supervised flats where one social pedagogue is
responsible for 20 children. Asylum-seeking
children under the age of 14 are placed in social
pedagogic facilities. Despite the fact that there
should be different placement options, unac-
companied and separated children are often
moved from reception centres to the basic care
facilities without a needs assessment, especially
in federal states where there is a shortage of fa-
cilities. There have also been cases where large
numbers of children, for instance 30 or more,
were placed in one facility without adequate
professional support.
In practice, asylum-seeking children often do
not have access to the same child and youth
services as Austrian children. Care and accom-
modation for children who have been granted
1 _ “63 300 Unaccompanied Minors among Asylum Seekers Registered in the EU in 2016”, Eurostat, news release 80/2017, 11 May 2017,
http://www.europeanmigrationlaw.eu/documents/Asylum%20applicants%20considered%20to%20be%20unaccompanied%20minors.pdf.
2 _ Article 1(4) GVV-Art.15a.
3 _ “Country Report Austria”, Asylum Information Database (AIDA), last modified 30 March 2017,
http://www.asylumineurope.org/reports/country/austria
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