National Preventive Mechanism low care requirements. Styria is the only Land without any residential groups for unaccompanied minor refugees. All minors over 14 years old are cared for in residential homes or in assisted living and housing facilities. The NPM criticises the situation in Styria and recommends approving residential groups exclusively in the future. Although these facilities with a basic level of social services take great pains to provide the best possible care for the minors, it is not possible to guarantee the same standard of quality as child and youth welfare facilities even with the highest daily rate. Equal status with other children and adolescents housed in Austria does also not exist in residential groups. Even if it were required from a pedagogical point of view, the possibility of doubling positions is as unlikely as that of enabling leisure activities, which are particularly important for adolescents who no longer have to go to school, cannot work and are waiting to attend courses. No equality It becomes even more difficult for refugees when they reach legal age and move to adult housing without receiving further care. Only very few manage to complete training that they started before reaching legal age. Some facilities, above all those managed by NGOs, continue to care for the adolescents with the lower daily rate for adults and try to enable them to acquire the schoolleaving qualification with the help of donations. The Land Salzburg has created the possibility of allowing young adults to stay in the accommodation for unaccompanied minor refugees until after their 18th birthday in special cases of hardship such as shortly before school graduation. In Vienna, there are 170 follow-up places intended to guarantee specific care for young adults. An additional 60 places are planned. The Vienna Social Fund supports the financing of school fees and travel expenses for training measures up to the 26th birthday in adult education facilities. In Tyrol, a mobile team from the regional government supports unaccompanied minor refugees from a professional point of view – if required – once they are moving out of accommodation and thereafter. Without wanting to diminish these services, it should be mentioned that they are far from being sufficient to prevent the adolescents from having to give up their training before completion, thus rendering all of the efforts for integration made by the facilities ineffective. Therefore, it is necessary to develop joint solutions for all of Austria. Refugees in training There are still very few special facilities for severely traumatised unaccompanied minor refugees or those with special needs. Currently, there are only care offers for six persons in Vienna and for ten in Lower Austria, and these are in no way sufficient. A facility that cares for a particularly high share of unaccompanied minor refugees with increased care requirements reported to the commission that the Land Lower Austria failed to reserve additional funds even for mentally ill minor refugees. The NPM was informed that all of the additional costs are already covered by the higher daily allowance paid retroactively since July 2016. During the Conference of Regional Refugee Unaccompanied minor refugees with increased care requirements 149

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