Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern,

Three weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 6,500 refugees have registered with Swiss authorities. How are they coping? This and the other news from the day in Wednesday’s briefing.

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In the news: more sanctions on Russia and Belarus, and an appeal not to forget about Yemen.

• Switzerland today extended its list of sanctions against individuals and entities over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A further 206 names have been added to an existing list, including oligarchs and prominent names such as businessman Roman Abramovich. “Switzerland’s list of sanctions now fully mirrors that of the European Union,” the economics ministry said. Sanctions targeting Belarus have also been beefed up.
• The Swiss government has pledged CHF14.5 million ($15.5 million) in support for aid operations in Yemen. Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis made the pledge at a high-level event in Geneva today, where he urged people not to forget about Yemen even as conflict rages in Ukraine. The money will go towards the activities of humanitarian organisations including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

© Keystone / Michael Buholzer

Swiss refugee centres stretched, but coping with the influx.

As of today, 6,500 Ukrainian refugees have registered with the Swiss authorities since February 24. And despite the new S permit, introduced last week to help an “unbureaucratic” registration for those fleeing the war, asylum centres are struggling. On Tuesday, long queues were reported at the six federal centres, which were all marked as “red” – i.e. at the limit of their capacity. Some Ukrainians waited all evening before leaving without an appointment. On Wednesday, the army offered two barracks, in cantons Zurich and Jura, for 1,800 more available beds. And although there is no limit to the amount of S permits, Transport Minister Simonetta Sommaruga told RTS radioExternal link today that thanks to the “solidarity of the population, we are capable of managing the situation”. One refugee told RTS that while she was concerned for her children and how they will cope with the waiting and registration, “any situation is better than bombs over our heads”.

© Keystone/ Valentin Flauraud

Study finds Swiss pandemic handling was (almost) top of the class.

Despite all the protests, and the stress, and the loss of health and life, Switzerland came out of the pandemic extremely well, claims Blick todayExternal link. The newspaper’s detailed analysis aggregated the results of five indicators (economic, health, and freedom-related) and found that Switzerland was the second-best of 46 countries studied in terms of how it fared. “Switzerland had no big economic collapse, no drastic restrictions, and no drastic excess mortality,” said the study author, economist Stefan Legge from the University of St Gallen. According to his indicators, the only country with a better record on Covid was Norway. Good news for Blick, at least, a newspaper which a few months ago was accused of being too cosy towards the government’s pandemic policy…

Keystone / Valentin Flauraud

Zurich authorities move to regulate the southern way of life.

Two years ago, when the well-meaning Zurich authorities tried to roll out a plan to make summer nightlife in the city more “Mediterranean” – by extending evening opening hours for bars and restaurants – they were shot-down by legal challenges from residents worried about noise; by the time the court cases were over, the summer was too. As a result, this year’s attemptExternal link at Zurich “Mediterranean Nights” are more “Helvetic”, said authorities yesterday: i.e. while some restaurants and bars will be able to stay open until 2am rather than midnight this summer (bringing a southern flavour to Zurich’s staid night-time streets) there are conditions: no pop-up bars (only establishments with pre-existing gardens can take part), no loudspeakers, and there will be a telephone hotline for bothered residents. Authorities will also be regularly measuring decibel levels. Fiesta?