Population figures
Total country population
8,977,139
Forcibly displaced population
Refugees (under UNHCR's mandate):
266,205
Asylum-seekers:
32,257
IDPs (of concern to UNHCR):
0
Other people in need of international protection:
0
Other
Statelessness persons
1,542
Host community
0
Others of concern to UNHCR
0
Country context
Austria, located in Central Europe, has a well-established legal framework for refugee protection, being one of the early signatories of the 1951 Refugee Convention. The country hosts a diverse refugee population, including those from conflict-affected regions such as Syria, Ukraine and Afghanistan.
The Federal Agency for Immigration and Asylum (BFA) is the determining authority responsible for examining applications for international protection and competent to take decisions at first instance as well as for residence permits on exceptional humanitarian grounds and certain Aliens’ Police proceedings. It is an administrative body falling under the responsibility of the Ministry of Interior. Asylum and aliens law procedures are administrative procedures. For these procedures, the General Administrative Procedures Act (AVG) and the BFA Procedures Act (BFA-VG) apply. The Asylum Act (AsylG) and the Aliens Police Act (FPG) however, contain a number of special procedural rules which regulate asylum and aliens law proceedings.
...The Asylum Act contains norms on the granting of international protection, expulsion procedures in connection with the rejection or dismissal of applications, provisions on the rejection of applications due to the existence of a “safe third country” or to the responsibility of another state according to the Dublin Regulation, norms on family reunification procedures and on airport procedures.
Asylum seekers with no financial means have the right to receive Basic Care services after lodging an asylum claim. In practice, basic care services are provided following the first interview on travel routes. The responsibility to provide Basic Care services is split between the Federal system and the states and is regulated in an agreement between the two since 2004.
Austria is state party to the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons; 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness; European Convention on Nationality and 2006 Council of Europe Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in Relation to State Succession. However, Austria entered reservations to the 1954 Convention (articles 27 and 28), the 1961 Statelessness Convention under article 8(3)(a), and made eleven separate reservations to the European Convention on Nationality.
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