Austria( (Muhammad Amir Saddique)
In the case of the suspected Afghans who are said to be responsible for the killing of a 13-year-old in Vienna, the director of the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum (BFA) has made the judiciary responsible. For the duration of the procedure, his authority “no longer has the competence and is a passenger here,” said BFA director Gernot Maier on Monday. Of the four suspects, three had committed criminal offences and could have been deported. The three men had received a negative asylum decision from the BFA but appealed to the Federal Administrative Court (BVwG). In the opinion of the judiciary, the Federal Office could have submitted requests to set a deadline in these cases. This would have meant that the BvWG would have had to decide after three months at the latest. In the specific case, the BFA in the Ministry of the Interior would have had the opportunity to accelerate this procedure with deadline applications, Justice Minister Alma Zadic (Greens) told the “Kronen Zeitung”. “It also carries out the deportations. One could have withdrawn the suspensive effect there in the event of a threat to public safety or public order. “Maier refused to ZIB2 that an application for setting a deadline would have accelerated the decision. One must leave the responsibility “where it is”, which in this case is with the judiciary. “It lies well there, but it also has to take care of it,” says Maier. There are fundamental deadlines for decision-making. These were shortened in 2017 for delinquent asylum seekers, for the BFA as the first and the BvWG as the second instance. However, more than half of the relevant procedures at the BvWG would only be completed after the statutory deadline, said Maier. BFA locates omissions at BVwG
Previously, the BFA had already substantiated its point of view concerning the specific cases of two people affected. The men from Afghanistan, some with a criminal record, are suspected of having abused and killed the girl. Three suspects aged 16, 18 and 23 are in custody, and another 22-year-old is on the run. Last week, the BFA had already identified omissions at the BVwG with a view to a captured 18-year-old suspect: the subsidiary protection had been withdrawn from the person concerned by the BFA, but the complaint procedure brought by the suspect in November 2019 was pending at the BVwG until the end. As long as there is no decision by the Federal Administrative Court, the BFA cannot take any further measures (deportation). According to the BFA, the cases of the last 23-year-old and the fugitive fourth alleged perpetrator are similar in principle, as the BFA described on Monday with a description of the chronology of the two asylum cases. The third suspect applied for international protection in Austria in October 2015, and in February 2018 the BFA issued a completely negative decision; Subsidiary protection or another residence permit were not granted either. The BFA issued a return decision and declared the deportation permissible. BFA: Court “demonstrably” informed
In March 2018, the 23-year-old then complained about the BFA decision with the Federal Administrative Court. At the end of 2019, the person concerned committed a criminal offence; the BFA had “verifiably” informed the BVwG of this criminal offence in December 2019. In May 2020, the final conviction to a prison term of 24 months for bodily harm, attempted coercion and coercion to a sexual act took place – the man has released afterwards because he had already served the unconditional part of the prison sentence during the pre-trial detention. During the probationary period, the BVwG then discontinued the complaint procedure – due to the “unknown whereabouts of the complainant”, as the BFA announced. Although the person concerned reported a few days later in the register, the procedure was not continued. BVwG endeavours to “objectify” Previously, the Federal Administrative Court of the APA said that they were trying to “objectify” and therefore did not intend to conduct proceedings through the media. Rather, these should be kept by the responsible judges. The Ministry of the Interior had previously complained that two of the suspects could not be deported despite previous convictions because the Federal Administrative Court had not decided on their complaint against deportation for years. The blog does not deny the delay in principle: One is confronted with an overhang of proceedings, which is why not all of the decisions can be made on time, a spokesman confirmed on Monday. The peak in 2019 was around 40,000 procedures, around 80 per cent of which were asylum procedures. Between 25,000 and 27,000 decisions annually
According to the court, the roughly 200 judges at the BVwG make between 25,000 and 27,000 decisions annually, the spokesman emphasized. “We are working flat out to reduce the backlog of proceedings.” The reduction of old processes is progressing “very well,” emphasized the BVwG to the “Kurier”: At the end of January 2021, the backlog amounted to around 18,000 cases.
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