Types of accommodation

Author

Asylkoordination Österreich Visit Website

At the end of 2022, 27 federal facilities with a maximum capacity of 8,000 were in use. During the reception crisis from October until December 2022, the BBU GmbH built up tents in 4 locations to house asylum applicants.[1] The crisis was a result of a lack of cooperation of the provinces that failed to take over asylum applicants after their admissibility procedure was completed. This led to a backlog of over 8,500 asylum applicants in federal accommodation facilities. The inadequate reception conditions in the tents caused a public uproar.[2] As mentioned above, in 2024, some federal facilities were closed and decommissioned due to a decline in asylum applications – overcrowded federal facilities were not an issue in 2025. In February 2025 a BBU reception facility was following a serious violent incident in which Syrian refugee attacked civilians with a knife, killing a fourteen year old and injuring several people.[3] Another Syrian refugee stopped the attacker by striking him with his car. However, politicians responded by decommissioning the facility in Villach, although the attacker had never lived there. As a result, around 40 residents were hastily transferred to other BBU facilities, and employees lost their jobs.[4]

With the exception of the total number of places in private accommodation, all figures above refer strictly to the federal centres (if not explicitly stated otherwise), as it is not possible to provide figures on the number of apartments and houses used at provincial level to accommodate asylum applicants. Asylum applicants are accommodated in facilities of different size and capacity. A quota system requires the federal provinces to provide places according to their population (see Dispersal across Federal provinces).^[5]

Each of the 9 federal provinces has a department in the regional government responsible for administering Basic Care. These departments search suitable accommodation places, and conclude contracts with NGOs or landlords, owners of hotels or inns, to provide a certain number of places and Basic Care provisions. Regular meetings of the heads of the provincial departments and the Ministry of Interior take place to evaluate the functioning of the Basic Care system and the level of financial compensation for the federal provinces. According to the Basic Care agreement between the State and the federal provinces, the latter must cover 40% of the expenditures, while the Federal Ministry has to pay 60% of the costs. This share of the Ministry of Interior could rise to 100% if an asylum application is not processed within due time. After 12 months, 100% of the accommodation costs of the provinces are covered by the Ministry.[6]

After the admission phase of the asylum procedure is finished, the responsibility to house asylum applicants during their asylum procedure shifts to the provinces. Throughout 2022, 17,286 asylum applicants were transferred from the EAST to the provinces.[7] There is not data for 2023 at the time of writing. In 2025, 4,044  asylum applicants were transferred to the provinces.[8]

Federal reception capacity

Source: Federal reception centres (blue dots, blue font), See website BBU Gmbh available in German here.

The initial reception centre Bad Kreuzen serves as centre for asylum applicants with an admissibility procedure likely to be rejected. The two initial reception centres in Traiskirchen and in Thalham are reserved for asylum applicants in the admissibility procedure and for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children as long as they are not transferred to reception facilities of the federal provinces. As of January 2025, the maximum capacity in the 9 available federal facilities was 1,260, including 450 in the main first reception facility in Traiskirchen.[9]

Until 31 December 2018, the law allowed the Ministry of Interior to forcibly open reception facilities in federal provinces that do not fulfil their reception quota. Such centres could be opened even when the facility was not adapted to host asylum applicants, provided that certain special safeguards were ensured such as fire protection and related building regulations.^[10] However, the law was only in force until 31 December 2018. Since then, it is no longer as easy to set up federal facilities in the federal states. In 2023 and 2024 existing federal facilities were therefore decommissioned, rather than closed. This has the advantage that, in the event of an increase in asylum applications, the facilities are already available and equipped (beds, tables, chairs, boxes, etc.) and ‘only’ staff need to be employed. In 2025 no facilities were re-opened and the facility in Corinthia was closed down.

In case of larger numbers of arrivals and difficulties in transferring asylum applicants to reception facilities in the federal provinces, the Federal State may host asylum applicants even after their asylum application is admitted to the regular asylum procedure (this usually occurs within a maximum of 20 days)[11] for a maximum period of 14 days.[12]

Mainly due to the decrease in asylum applications, the distribution of applicants to the provinces was not a topic of public debate in 2025 as it was in the years of high numbers of applications such as 2022.[13]

The province of Burgenland announced in 2024 that it would not take more than 330 asylum applicants per year in its basic care system. In 2025, only around 120 applicants were transferred to the province.[14]

Source: asylkoordination österreich, unpublished (data by Ministry of Interior, Basic Care System, unpublished)

The light orange line represents accommodation of asylum applicants in the federal reception centres (January 2023: 7,000 to March 2026: 738). The other lines represent the development of the accommodation figures of asylum applicants accommodated in the provinces.

In 2023, there were almost 60,000 asylum applications of which half of the applicants continued to travel on to other countries and their procedures were discontinued. In the same time, the provinces Tirol, Vorarlberg and Upper Austria increased their accommodation places in the basic care system by a couple hundred places maximum per province while the other provinces have not reacted or even reduced accommodation capacity. This has not led to another collapse of the federal reception centres like in October 2022, when the CEO of the BBU GmbH announced that asylum applicants would have to be accommodated in tents on the grounds of the federal reception centres, due to the high number of onward travels.[15] In 2025, the number of federal reception centres were reduced to 8 (+1) (2023: 32) due to the decrease in the number of applicants.

Reception capacity at provincial level

In practice, most federal provinces do not provide the number of places required under their quota, which is partly due to the fact that provinces such as Vienna exceed their quota (almost double of the quota agreed). At the end of 2025, the entire Austrian reception system hosted a total of 52,823[16] persons (including beneficiaries of temporary protection, international protection and rejected asylum applicants), out of which 10,506 were asylum applicants.

Information on distribution across the federal provinces is provided in the section on Freedom of Movement. While Vienna continues to exceed its relative reception share, other federal provinces only reached 50-60% of the quota agreed. Due to the high number of Ukrainians entering Austria after 24 February 2022, the basic care system in the provinces had to accommodate a large number of refugees in a dysfunctional basic care system. Around 78% of the Ukrainian refugees were accommodated privately at the start. This share had gone down to 49%[17] at the end of 2025. Refugees from Ukraine are the responsibility of the basic care systems of the provinces as there is no admissibility phase (during which the basic care system in the federal centres would be responsible). For further information, please see the Annex on temporary protection.

NGOs or owners of hostels and inns, who run reception centres under the responsibility of the federal provinces, have contracts with the governmental department of the respective federal provinces. While in most federal provinces almost all asylum applicants are placed in reception centres (e.g. 75% of asylum applicants in Styria and 81% in Burgenland), private accommodation is more often used in other states such as Vienna, where 80% of applicants lived in private accommodation in 2025.[18]

Source: Basic care, 16 January 2026 unpublished.

[1] Ministry of Interior, Answer to parliamentary request, 12699/AB, XXVII. GP, 13 January 2023, available in German here.

[2] Kurier „Asyl: Zelte in Kärnten wegen Schneefalls geräumt“, 23 November 2022, available in German here.

[3] Stadt Villach, Messerattentat in Villach-Villach trauert, 15 Feburary 2025, available in German here.

[4] ORF Kärnten, Villacher Flüchtlingsheim wird geräumt, 18 February 2025, available in German here.

[5] Article 1(4) GVV-Art.15a.

[6] Article 10, 11, GVV-Art. 15a.

[7] OÖ Landesregierung, Beantwortung einer Anfrage an LR Hattmansdorfer, Beilage 13124/2023, XXIX. GP, 5. April 2023, available in German here.

[8] Ministry of Interior, Answer to parliamentary request 4339/AB, XXVIII GP, 2 April 2026, available in German here .

[9] Ministry of Interior, Answer to parliamentary request, 17218, XXVII. GP, 5 April 2024, available in German here.

[10] Bundesverfassungsgesetz: Unterbringung und Aufteilung von hilfs- und schutzbedürftigen Fremden. BGBl 120, 28 September 2015, available here.

[11] Art 28 (2) AsylG 2005.

[12] Art 6 (2) GVG-Bund.

[13] See previous updates to this country report, available here.

[14] “Doskozil will Obergrenze bei Grundversorgung und 10.000 Asylanträge“, kurier.at, 01 February 2024, available in German here; Ministry of Interior, Answer to parliamentary request 4339/AB, 2 April 2026 available in German here.

[15] ORF.at, „Asyl: Bund stellt Zelte in Thalham auf“, 14 October 2022, available in German here.

[16] Ministry of Interior, basic care information, unpublished.

[17] Minutes from an exchange meeting with the coordination unit for Ukrainian refugees, 23.01.2026 unpublished.

[18] Minutes from an exchange meeting with the coordination unit for Ukrainian refugees, 23.01.2026 unpublished.