Persons with mental illnesses still experience marginalisation and stigmatisation.
Adequate resources for rehabilitation (provision of assistance for persons with disabilities)
are needed.
There is an urgent need to promote equal opportunities for persons with mental illnesses.
2.4.2.6.
Persons with disabilities among refugees
Photos and reports from or about refugees who have entered Austria
as a destination or transit country after a long and arduous journey
tend to obscure the fact that there are also persons with disabilities
seeking asylum. The increase in the number of refugees over the past
two years has also resulted in a significant increase in the number of
refugees who are particularly in need of protection. This includes
chronically ill individuals, traumatised persons, pregnant women,
(unaccompanied) minors, elderly people and persons with disabilities.
Within this group, persons with serious or very serious multiple
disabilities who seek protection are in a particularly precarious
situation, as the question of reception and care revolves around
specific needs. In practice, there are many problems associated with
the provision of appropriate medical and social care and provision of
necessary resources. These problems may require specific and often
individual solutions.
Effective as of 1 July 2015, EU Directive 2013/33 (as amended) sets forth
requirements regarding provision of services for persons with special
needs. Section 19.2 thereof states: “Member States shall provide
necessary medical or other assistance to applicants who have special
reception needs, including appropriate mental health care where
needed”. Under Section 22, member states must ensure that the
support provided to applicants with special reception needs takes into
account their special reception needs throughout the duration of the
asylum procedure. This means that persons with disabilities must be
provided with care appropriate to their disability and prophylactic
treatment or treatment which compensates for the disability not only
during initial reception but also as part of the provision of residential
space appropriate to their basic care.
In 2015, in light of the capacities available for housing and caring for
refugees, these requirements could not be met. Unfortunately, this
was observed on many occasions during visits conducted by
Commission 6 to the completely overburdened Traiskirchen Initial
Reception Centre and during visits by Commission 4 to emergency
accommodations, where the goal is simply to fend off homelessness.
Thus, for example, at the Traiskirchen Initial Reception Centre there is
Building 4, which is specifically for persons with disabilities. During its
visits, Commission 6 observed that accessibility for persons with
No accessibility for
persons with disabilities
at Traiskirchen Initial
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