Investigating human rights cannot refer to any Austria-wide standardised procedures with regard to care of unaccompanied minor refugees. The draft of the Salzburg Children’s and Youth Service Act 2014 (Salzburger Kinder- und Jugendhilfegesetz) stipulated that unaccompanied minor refugees should be excluded from the personal scope of application of the law. This shows clearly that there is a need for action. In an ex-officio investigative proceeding, the AOB contacted all the Laender and asked how many emergency facilities and special socio-pedagogical residential places in shared accommodations and in foster homes are available. Additionally, the AOB investigated whether all of the services provided by child and youth welfare authorities and organisations, e.g. therapy to process the experiences during their flight, are available to these minors and how many minors the individual Land is already caring for. Comprehensive research regarding the situation The investigative proceeding clearly revealed that there are major differences among the individual Laender with regard to the treatment of unaccompanied minor refugees. This begins directly after the children and adolescents arrive without being accompanied by police. Whether they are brought to a reception centre; when the application for care is made; whether child and youth welfare authorities are responsible for approval and supervision of facilities; whether they are cared for in child and youth welfare facilities, by foster parents or in facilities that provide reception conditions under the Basic Provision Agreement; whether higher per diem rates and additional services are assumed by child and youth welfare authorities when necessary and whether they can continue to be supported after reaching their age of majority within the scope of assistance for young adults: all of this depends essentially on which Land is responsible for them. The assignment to facilities that provide reception conditions under the Basic Provision Agreement is made mainly based on available capacities. Concrete care and support requirements of the minors are neither systematically assessed nor sufficiently taken into consideration. The logical consequence is poorer care. There is a deficit of general support structures for children who are victims of human trafficking. This was also criticised by GRETA (Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings), the supervision committee of the Council of Europe to implement the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. The commissions of the AOB have visited some of these facilities and in some cases, have found unacceptable conditions (see p. 106 et seq.). The Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that reception conditions under the Basic Provision Agreement cannot replace care and that an unaccompanied minor refugee must be assigned a party responsible for his or her care. It can be derived from this ruling that the Laender must consider the welfare of all children and adolescents a priority. Differentiating between Austrian and alien children represents discrimination of the unaccompanied minor Reception conditions under the Basic Provision Agreement insufficient 55

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