Author
The law does not foresee specific procedural guarantees for vulnerable asylum seekers, except for the special rule on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who are entitled to have their application examined through an urgent procedure, which halves the duration of the whole process. As explained in Regular Procedure: Fast-Track Processing, the urgent procedure reduces time limits for the whole asylum process from 6 months to 3. Beyond this, the existing protocols on unaccompanied children and victims of trafficking do not imply special guarantees.
The OAR stated that its staff is trained on EUAA training modules, and, since 2023 the office started to create special units (i.e. children) dealing with cases of applicants from vulnerable groups.
Several concerns regarding the measures and provisions regarding identification, age assessment and protection of unaccompanied children are discussed in Identification.
Although the Asylum Law does not foresee the exemption of persons with special needs from the Border Procedure, in practice the OAR makes exceptions for applicants such as pregnant women or persons requiring medical assistance, presumed trafficking victims, who are admitted to the territory.[1]
[1] Information provided by Accem’s legal service in April 2023.