Asylum requests from Afghan women rise sharply in Switzerland
Afghan women wait to receive food rations distributed by a humanitarian aid group, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, May 28, 2023.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
In September, 3,966 asylum applications were submitted in Switzerland, up 32.2% on the previous month. The increase was mainly due to a change in procedure allowing Afghan women to apply for asylum. Many of those who did already live in Switzerland.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
September’s asylum statistics were marked by the new practice, in place since July 2023, of processing asylum applications from women and girls from Afghanistan, the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) said in a press release issued on Tuesday.
This is in light of the deteriorating situation of women and girls in many areas of life in Afghanistan since the Taliban came to power, indicated the migration officeExternal link.
The country most represented among asylum seekers last month was Afghanistan (1,486 applications, 749 more than in August). Next came Turkey (846 applications, +69), Algeria (179 applications, +27), Eritrea (170 applications, -63) and Morocco (157 applications, +44).
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
What do you think Switzerland’s Alain Berset can bring to the Council of Europe?
The former interior minister is to become the first Swiss Secretary General of the Council of Europe – which issues should his five-year term focus on?
How is your country dealing with the return of stolen artifacts?
Western nations like Switzerland often have to deal with the process of recovering or returning looted artifacts which have been illegally imported. What’s the situation like in your country?
Norwegian zombie film wins main prize at Swiss festival NIFFF
This content was published on
More than 55,000 people celebrated the fantastic film at the International Fantastic Film Festival in Neuchâtel (NIFFF) - fewer than last year.
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Why asylum in Switzerland remains elusive for Afghan refugees
This content was published on
Despite the deteriorating human rights situation under the Taliban, the Swiss continue to resist calls to facilitate entry and protection for Afghans.
This content was published on
On Inside Geneva this week, host Imogen Foulkes asks if the UN should still work in Afghanistan, now the Taliban are banning women from work.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.