A European court has said that refugees should be granted the same level of social assistance as the nationals that live in a country.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled against a 2015 regulation that saw Austria give minimal social assistance to refugees.
It has ordered Austria to roll back regulations that saw refugees given less social assistance than native-born Austrians.
Only refugees who have a right of permanent residence are treated in the same way as Austrian nationals.
The piece of Austrian law states that a foreign national who has been granted asylum obtains "a temporary right of residence".
This right of residence is valid for three years.
But it says needs-based minimum income protection shall be provided only to persons who "have their habitual residence in Upper Austria" and are also "persons eligible for asylum or beneficiaries of subsidiary protection".
The case was taken by a man named Ahmad Shah Ayubi.
It was referred from the Landesverwaltungsgericht Oberösterreich (Regional Administrative Court in Upper Austria) to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling.
That court considered that such legislation gives rise to a difference in treatment of refugees with a right of temporary residence.
The ECJ found that: "Article 29 of Directive 2011/95/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on standards for the qualification of third-country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection, for a uniform status for refugees or for persons eligible for subsidiary protection, and for the content of the protection granted, must be interpreted as meaning that it precludes national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which provides that refugees with a temporary right of residence in a member state are to be granted social security benefits which are less than those received by nationals of that member state and refugees who have a permanent right of residence in that member state."
The ECJ said since a step in the action is pending before a national court, a decision on costs is a matter for that court.
