Title	Ra 2018/18/0533
Publisher	Austria: Supreme Administrative Court (Verwaltungsgerichtshof)
Publication Date	13 December 2018
Country	Afghanistan | Austria | Islamic Republic of Iran
Topics	Internal flight alternative (IFA) / Internal relocation alternative (IRA) / Internal protection alternative (IPA)
Citation / Document Symbol	ECLI:AT:VWGH:2018:RA2018180533.L00.1
Cite as	Ra 2018/18/0533, ECLI:AT:VWGH:2018:RA2018180533.L00.1, Austria: Supreme Administrative Court (Verwaltungsgerichtshof), 13 December 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/cases,AUT_AHAC,5c61515b4.html [accessed 6 October 2022]
Comments	The applicant is an Afghan national and member of the ethnic group of Hazaras who was born and raised in Iran. He lodged an application for international protection in Austria in July 2015 which was rejected in first instance in September 2017.The Federal Administrative Court dismissed his appeal on 03/09/2018, arguing that even though the applicant cannot return to Sar-e Pol (where his family was originally from), there was an IFA available in Kabul or Mazar-e Sharif. It elaborated that the applicant had already gathered professional experience, had grown up in an Afghan family and was native speaker of one of the official languages and concluded that the applicant was familiar with the cultural circumstances in Afghanistan. The Austrian Supreme Administrative Court annulled this decision. It stated that the Federal Administrative Court's conclusion that the applicant was familiar with the cultural circumstances in Afghanistan was not evidence-based and emphasized that that the applicant had explicitly contested this. Furthermore the Supreme Administrative Court criticized that the Federal Administrative Court did not take into account and analyse the UNHCR-Afghanistan guidelines. A respective obligation derives from the respective Austrian case law as well as from European Union Law. The Court emphasized that according to UNHCR there was in general no IFA available in Kabul and that the availability of an IFA in other cities was questionable and needed to be assessed in a thorough manner on a case-to-case basis.
Disclaimer	This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.