Embassy update: Vienna

A processing factor which continues to feature prominently in Vienna is the requirement to screen for war crimes and crimes against humanity. This applies not only to immigration applicants but to many visitors as well.

Approximately fifty five percent of all immigration applicants and just over half of all visitor applicants come from the countries that made up the former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. Given the atrocities that occurred in the struggles for independence, extraordinary screening is required for many of the applicants. A separate information form must be completed by many of those applicants and the forms need to be reviewed and the answers assessed as part of the decision making process. Separate databases must also be accessed and further referrals made in prescribed cases. The risk of involvement in war crimes serves to limit the number of cases where interviews can be waived and the related screening continues to demand considerable attention.

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