Stricter law on the rights of foreigners

Policy Response DateApril 29, 2011 Country: Austria Address: Vienna General Type: Discrimination, Institutional discrimination, Equality/Integration Racism and discrimination phenomena: Anti-migrant/xenophobia, Nationalism
Groups affected / Interested in: Migrants, Refugees, Asylum seekers Key socio-economic/institutional areas: Policing - law enforcement, Political discourse -parties - orgs

On April 29th, 2011 the Austrian parliament passed an amendment to the law on the rights of foreigners and asylum seekers. The coalition parties SPÖ (Austrian Social Democrats) and ÖVP (Austrians Peoples Party) voted for the law. Only one MEP (SPÖ) abstained from voting.

The law stipulates the so-called "Mitwirkungspflicht" (compulsory attendance), meaning that asylum seekers are not allowed to leave the reception facilities during the admissibility procedure up to seven days. Furthermore it establishes that immigrants have to demonstrate a certain knowledge of German language before immigrating to Austria and it introduced the "Rot-Weiß-Rot-Card" in order to attracked highly qualified workers. Also the law on the detention of unsuccessful asylum seekers have been tightened.

The law was critised by several NGOs, by the Green Party and by the UNHCR because of the de-facto detention of asylum seekers during reception phase and because of inhuman restrictions negatively effecting the situation of asylum seekers and migrants.

Source: http://derstandard.at/1303950571833/Nationalrat-Schaerferes-Fremdenrecht-beschlossen-nur-eine-Rote-gegen-Parteilinie (2011-04-29), http://www.unhcr.at/presse/pressemitteilungen/artikel/504b92a4c2e867e299b4c2bb66abc6b8/unhcr-erneuert-kritik-an-fremdenrechtsnovelle.html (2011-04-13).