Austria Number of Contested Cases

July 22, 2008

Comment: The Austrian ‘der Standard’ writes about unaccompanied minors in a series of articles. In this one it mentions that the number of overall asylum seekers in Austria has been on a steady decline, while the number of minors seeking asylum has risen from 488 in 2006 to 582 in 2007. In the first half of 2008 there were already 358 cases.

The number of cases when the authorities – based on medical evidence – have stated the claimant’s adulthood were between 5 to 15% of these cases. The article also mentions that the services of the Alternative Health Institute were requested to assist in determining the claimants’ age.