The Protection of Survivors of Torture Seeking Asylum in Austria

This interdisciplinary research project, implemented by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Human Rights together with Hemayat – Care Center for Torture and War Survivors, examines the situation of torture survivors seeking asylum in Austria. This project aims to provide an insight into the situation of torture survivors who are in the asylum process or were until recently, based on 15 individual cases. The factual situation is contrasted with the legal framework at national, EU and international level.

The project represents an innovation, as lawyers and psychotherapists/psychologists combine their data and methods and thus arrive at a new consideration and evaluation of empirical and theoretical material. This interdisciplinary approach makes it possible to show how the application of the asylum law in Austria is experienced by torture survivors or, for example, what effects the asylum procedure has on the persons concerned.