legal and social conditions for asylum seekers and refugees in ...

Legal aid
Such an appeal does not have automatic suspensive effect. According to Section 30(2) of the
Law on procedures before the Administrative Court, the applicant has to make a specific
application for suspensive effect to the Court. This will be granted if it is not against urgent public
interests and if, after taking into consideration all interests, the Court considers that there could
be a disproportionately disadvantageous outcome for the applicant if suspensive effect was
refused.
This is an extraordinary legal remedy and, where the court reaches a positive decision, it leads to
the quashing of the appeal decision and reconsideration of the case by the Asylum Review
Board.
In accordance with Section 40 of the Asylum Law, the Federal Minister of Interior may appoint
refugee advisers to assist asylum seekers. Upon request, their role is to:
– provide aliens with information on any questions concerning their right to asylum;
– assist them with the submission of their asylum application;
– represent them in the asylum procedure, unless representation by a barrister/solicitor is
required by law;
– assist them with the translation of documents and the provision of interpreters.
At present ten refugee advisers have been appointed by the Ministry of Interior, each of whom
works for up to eight hours per week. It is up to these refugee advisers to decide which cases
require their assistance. In practice, since there are very few such advisers, few asylum seekers
receive legal counselling which is paid for by the state.
Legal counselling and assistance is also provided by several refugee assisting NGOs, including
Caritas Austria.
Interpreters
Interpreters are usually provided during the various stages of the asylum procedure.
Unaccompanied minors
According to Section 25 of the Asylum Law, unaccompanied minors over 14 years of age are
allowed to submit an application for asylum. Unaccompanied minor asylum seekers are
represented by the locally operating youth welfare agency (“Jugendwohlfahrtsträger”).
Despite some improvements in 1998 and 1999, the situation of unaccompanied minors in Austria
is still problematic. Representatives of the youth welfare agencies are generally not trained in
asylum matters and very often, their first meeting with the child takes place during the interview
with the officer of the Federal Asylum Office. Children are often not sufficiently informed about
their legal representative and do not understand his/her role during the procedure. In some
cases, interviews with minors are conducted without their legal representative, although this is
expressly prohibited by Section 30(3) of the Asylum Law.
Female asylum seekers
According to Section 27(3) of the Asylum Law, asylum seekers whose fear of persecution is
based on their gender must be interviewed by officials of the same sex if they so request.
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Austria