politics
After the Viennese City Audit Office again addressed grievances in the MA 35 immigration authority in a report on Monday, the NGO SOS Mitmensch also criticized it on Tuesday. The NGO calls for more staff and anti-discrimination training
On Tuesday, the human rights organization presented an interim report on the “problems and grievances” and the reform process of the municipal department, which has been ongoing since 2021 and is planned until 2024. The main problems of the authority are therefore excessively long procedures of up to two years until the actual procedure is started, poor communication, backwardness in digitization, unfriendly to racist behavior on the part of employees and “restrictive interpretation of the already restrictive legal situation,” said project coordinator Maiko sakurai
Small advances are not enough
The NGO’s audit report on the ongoing reform process of MA 35 shows that the steps taken so far are far from sufficient, said Alexander Pollak, spokesman for the organization, at a press conference. “At MA 35 we are talking about an authority that scares people.”
Although there have been small advances, such as about 50 additional employees and a telephone hotline, these are not enough to seriously improve the situation of the clients. “It used to be that you often didn’t get any information – now I still don’t get any information, but in a friendlier way,” said lawyer Julia Ecker.
Criticism of the legal situation in citizenship procedures
The report, for which SOS Mitmensch interviewed a total of 22 experts, those affected and those responsible for MA 35, also criticizes the particularly restrictive legal situation in Austria for citizenship procedures. According to Sakurai, this is interpreted by the employees of MA 35 as “more restrictive than necessary”. For the further reform process, the NGO calls for sufficient staffing of the authority, case-related information, efficient document management, a clear and barrier-free online presence as well as anti-discrimination training for employees.
The Vienna Greens, who initiated the 2021 audit, feel confirmed by the City Audit Office report. Despite the reform process, MA 35 is showing serious problems, said Berivan Aslan, spokeswoman for integration and human rights for the Greens in Vienna, in a broadcast on Tuesday. “This problem must finally be taken seriously by the politically responsible. Here the integration city councilor Christoph Wiederkehr (NEOS, note) is responsible.”