Swiss justice minister discusses plight of Syrian migrants in Brussels
A woman waves an Syrian opposition flag in celebration days after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government in Damascus, on December 12, 2024.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Swiss justice minister discusses plight of Syrian migrants in Brussels
Swiss Justice Minister Beat Jans met his European counterparts in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the situation of Syrian asylum-seekers in Europe. Jans called for coordinated action by European states.
Jans told reporters in Brussels that it was time to help Syrians rebuild their country. “We must not disappoint the great hope that is there now. European countries must try to establish democracy there,” he declared.
It is also about preventing other people from leaving Syria and possibly seeking protection in Europe, Jans acknowledged.
The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) announced at the beginning of the week that asylum procedures underway in Switzerland for people from Syria had been suspended. This concerns around 500 cases in Switzerland. In Europe, 15 countries have taken a similar decision, Jans noted.
Around 4,000 Syrians are in Switzerland hold temporary residence status.
“If a return is reasonably possible, we will lift this status and discuss the matter with these people,” said the Swiss minister, adding that Switzerland would support Syrians who wished to return voluntarily.
More
More
Fall of Assad: Switzerland calls for reconciliation in Syria
This content was published on
Following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, the Swiss foreign ministry has called on all parties to protect civilians and respect international humanitarian law.
On a separate issue, Romania and Bulgaria will become full members of Europe’s Schengen free-travel area from next month, swelling the number of nations to 29, the EU said on Thursday.
Jans said this change would not bring any major changes for Switzerland. According to the Federal Council’s estimate, this will have no influence on immigration or migration. For the moment, migratory flows are not passing through Bulgaria or Romania on their way to Central Europe.
Translated from German by DeepL/sb
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.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Swiss Abroad
The citizenship obstacle course facing spouses of Swiss Abroad
Automated driving on Swiss motorways is theoretically possible from March
This content was published on
It will be theoretically possible to hand over the steering wheel to technology but no such system has been submitted for official approval yet.
Heated atmosphere at Swiss rally against AfD politician Alice Weidel
This content was published on
Around 250 people demonstrated "against the right" and the German AfD politician Alice Weidel on Saturday afternoon in Einsiedeln.
This content was published on
The Ethos Foundation recommends that shareholders vote against all compensation-related items at the Annual General Meeting on March 7.
Top Swiss firms close to reaching gender quota in boards
This content was published on
The proportion of women on the boards of directors of the fifty largest listed companies in Switzerland currently stands at 28%.
Swiss committee wants to end government resignations during legislative term
This content was published on
Members of the Federal Council should no longer be able to leave office before the end of their term, according to a House of Representatives committee.
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.