4 July 2014
The updated AIDA Report, compiled by ECRE member organisation Asylkoordination Osterreich, shows that as of January 2014, detained asylum seekers no longer have the right to be represented in appeals or assisted at hearings by their legal advisers. Nevertheless, NGOs may visit detained asylum seekers and represent them in appeals. Furthermore, free legal advice is no longer granted in case alternatives to detention are applied.
The report also notes that unaccompanied children, assisted by their legal representative, will be able to lodge an appeal against a negative decision on their application within one month, while other asylum seekers are granted a two-week time limit for appeals.
Finally, the report discusses the reorganisation of the Federal Asylum Agency, responsible for the examination of asylum requests, into the new Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum (BFA), now also in charge of return orders and immigration detention. Such reorganisation was brought about by a new Federal Law on procedural rules for the granting of international protection, which entered into force on 1 January 2014.
This report is part of the Asylum Information Database (AIDA), a project of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), in partnership with Forum refugiés-Cosi, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and the Irish Refugee Council. AIDA focuses on asylum procedures, reception conditions and detention of asylum seekers in EU Member States.
This article originally appeared in the ECRE Weekly Bulletin of 4 July 2014.
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