2023-12-07 10:49:26
The Interior Ministry has submitted a proposal to the federal states to expand the use of asylum seekers for community service work. The model also provides for a reduction in cash and benefits in kind if those affected do not want to provide services. After a meeting of the state refugee representatives in Vienna, the ministry said that the states might implement the suggestions independently and that no adjustment to the existing 15a agreement was necessary.
Experts in the Ministry of the Interior on the subject of basic services are of the opinion that the federal states might therefore implement the proposed reduction in pocket money, according to a statement from the Ministry of the Interior to the APA. “Each federal state must assess for itself whether state regulations are affected.”
The refugee representatives of the federal states had already spoken out in September in favor of extending the obligation to do charitable work and asked the Ministry of the Interior for a model. This is now available and was presented to the state speakers at a conference in Vienna this Thursday morning.
According to information from the Salzburg representatives, the question of work obligations was discussed at the conference, but not yet formally addressed. FPÖ government coordinator Dom Kamper explained that Salzburg was examining in which areas this was possible. Basically, they are fully behind the idea and will “definitely make full use of it in Salzburg”.
The current regulation provides for charitable work in the neighborhood or on behalf of states and municipalities. An extension to non-profit organizations was suggested. The Interior Ministry model also includes consequences for refusal: In addition to reducing pocket money (by half, according to Ö1 radio), the proposal, which is also submitted to the APA, also envisages the switch from cash benefits to benefits in kind in the federal states (as is already the case). is common in the federal government’s basic provision, for example in the form of meal vouchers). The full receipt of these benefits in kind should only be possible if there is a willingness to work.
The debate has been simmering for a long time; at the beginning of November, the Vorarlberg ÖVP announced a “Vorarlberg Code” that asylum seekers should sign and which obliges them to do community service. Tyrol’s state governor Anton Mattle (ÖVP) appeared open to this proposal in November, while Tyrol’s deputy state governor Georg Dornauer (SPÖ) described the request as pointless and “pure theater thunder” by the ÖVP before the elections in 2024.
Criticism came from Wolfgang Salm from the “Together for Children’s Rights” platform: The proposal was just another attempt to make “political change” on the backs of those in need of protection, he said on the sidelines of a press conference. The pocket money is 40 euros per month and has not been increased for 20 years. He doesn’t see that people are now being forced to take “compulsory measures” in order to keep them employed. In any case, the suggestion would be difficult to implement, said Salm.
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