Custody for all children

This year's World Refugee Day emphasises the right to protection in times when this human right is repeatedly questioned by the state or society.

Unaccompanied minor refugees are particularly in need of protection. Together with other organisations, we point out the necessity of taking over the custody of unaccompanied children and adolescents from day 1 via the child and youth welfare agencies in Austria.

Why is guardianship not given to unaccompanied minor refugees?

After unaccompanied refugee children have arrived in Austria and filed an application for international protection, they are first accommodated in federal facilities before being transferred to suitable youth quarters of the Laender. Accommodation in federal care facilities should actually only last a few days to a few weeks until Austria's responsibility for the asylum procedure has been clarified. However, since the federal provinces provide too few accommodation facilities for unaccompanied refugee children, there is a traffic jam in the federal facilities. In 2022, the average waiting time was 131 days, i.e. more than 4 months, whereby the average is a downplayed value, as some children and adolescents had to spend 6 months or longer in federal facilities. These facilities are not designed for age-appropriate accommodation and care. But actually it is irrelevant whether it is 4 or 6 months, because a child or adolescent should never be without a person with custody and without age-appropriate care.

Protection gap in the custody of refugee children and adolescents without parents

The Länder consider that the federal government is responsible for children and adolescents accommodated in federal care facilities and routinely do not assume custody of them. This leads to the situation that no guardian is responsible for hundreds of children and adolescents in Austria. Austria's approach thus contradicts both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the BVG Children's Rights and of course the EU Reception Directive, which also emphasises the special need for protection of unaccompanied children and adolescents.

The safety and best possible development of the child is not guaranteed if for a not inconsiderable period of time no one is responsible for looking after the child's interests, supporting the child and protecting him or her where necessary.

The report of the Child Welfare Commission also sharply criticised the problem of the lack of custody for unaccompanied minor refugees and made the following recommendation: "The custody of unaccompanied minor refugees should urgently be made uniform for the whole of Austria. The current protection gap must be closed and guardianship must be ensured from the beginning, if necessary also by means of temporary guardianship. This requires a legal regulation similar to the one for children found in the federal territory."

CONCORDIA supports the action week for the observance of children's rights of underage refugees

In order to obtain a transfer of custody to the child and youth welfare agencies for underage asylum seekers in federal care facilities, applications for custody of unaccompanied refugee children will be made during a first week of action in the week of 19.6.2023 - 24.6.2023. For this purpose, counselling sessions will be offered by legal counsellors in the run-up to the action week, in which attempts will be made to contact the parents in the home country in order to provide the parents and unaccompanied refugee children with information on the scope and possibilities for improvement through an application for custody. The child and youth welfare organisations will work for improvements in the best interests of the child. This will be done in consultation with the parents, provided they can be reached.

During the action week, trained staff members will be present in front of the federal care facilities in Mariabrunn and Korneuburg to advise and support the unaccompanied minor asylum seekers in filing their applications. After the application has been filed, the children and adolescents are legally accompanied in the custody proceedings.

The aim of the project is to bring about an improvement for unaccompanied refugee children in Austria. The applications are to point out the emergency situations of the children and adolescents and to ensure a transfer of custody to the child and youth welfare organisations via the application to the district courts. The project wants to make clear that the current practice is untenable and not in line with Article 1 of the Federal Constitutional Law on Children's Rights.