Government releases more details of Ukraine refugee departure plans

Swiss schooling for Ukrainian children, in canton Valais, February 2023. Keystone/cyril Zingaro

A provisional government strategy for a return of Ukrainian refugees from Switzerland foresees a departure window of between six and nine months.

Currently, it is impossible to predict when the war in Ukraine will end and when refugees will be able to return to their country safely, the government said last Friday when it first “took note” of the provisional strategy.

The full details of the concept, worked up by the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) in collaboration with cantonal authorities, were transmitted to various media including Keystone-SDA on Wednesday.

The plans are based on a lifting of the S status two to three years after the start of the war, i.e. in 2024 or 2025, Keystone-SDA writes. At that point, some 70,000 Ukrainians should be able to return home, 80% of them voluntarily; most are families who were separated due to the men remaining in Ukraine. In addition, the majority have a biometric passport and therefore do not need a visa or replacement travel document.

+ Read more: experts praise Swiss handling of ‘S’ status

The remaining 20%, or 14,000 people, would let the departure deadline expire. This percentage is expected to vary, depending on the length of the war and the degree of damage in Ukraine. The longer the stay in Switzerland, the less likely a person will be willing to leave of their own free will, the plan says. Furthermore, after five years of uninterrupted stay, they could obtain a Swiss B permit, valid for five years.

The report therefore concludes that everything must be done to encourage voluntary departures. The departure time should neither be too short – to allow for logistical planning of the return – nor too long, so as not to encourage people to postpone it.

To this end, the plan suggests a time frame of six to nine months.

The situations of vulnerable people would be examined on a case-by-case basis, while the overall procedure would be modelled on that governing the returns of asylum seekers.

Voluntary departures should be carried out independently and by land. Forced returns by air must be the last resort. Special cases requiring special support, for the approximately 1,000 unaccompanied minors, around 1,600 people over 75 and people with health problems, would not be prioritised.

Initial financial assistance is considered. It could be uniform or decreasing, in order to encourage people not to wait for the end of the deadline to leave. The articulated amounts vary between CHF1000 and CHF4000 ($1,090 and $4,355) francs per person depending on the departure phases.

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