Not a single one of the eleven recommendations of the Child Welfare Commission set up by Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) a year ago has been implemented, its members complained at a press conference in Vienna on Monday. For this reason, some of them, including the chairwoman Irmgard Griss, founded the alliance “Together for children’s rights”. The aim is to institutionalize child protection in the asylum system in the long term and to build up political pressure.
In July, the Child Welfare Commission presented an analysis of the legal situation of children in asylum and right-of-residence procedures, including recommendations. “The Ministry of Justice has said that they are trying to implement the recommendations. So far, however, not a single recommendation has been implemented,” says Griss. “The current case of a deported 13-year-old shows that the Ministry of the Interior only read the decision superficially, if at all,” criticized the ex-OGH President.
“Only a temporary solution”
In addition to Irmgard Griss, the new platform also includes university professor Ernst Berger, child and youth advocate Ercan Nik Nafs, Sinaida Horvath from the University of Vienna and Katharina Glawischnig from the Austrian Asylum Coordinator. From now on, the alliance will carry out civil society monitoring in the area of asylum and aliens law. This is intended to put political pressure on the government and authorities. “The alliance can only be an interim solution until there is a state institution,” says Glawischnig. For this reason, reports of deportations in which the child’s well-being was violated should be collected, documented and published. However, the alliance cannot offer direct legal support.
NEOS MP Stephanie Krisper also criticizes the federal government’s handling of the recommendations of the Child Welfare Commission: “It is becoming increasingly clear that the government only wanted to buy time and appease the many critical voices.”
According to SPÖ child and youth spokeswoman Eva Maria Holzleitner, the government is not only not complying with the commission’s recommendations, but is also disregarding applicable children’s rights: “We have children’s rights that have constitutional status in Austria, which clearly state that the best interests of the child must be taken into account. “
Source: Nachrichten
