Given the scale of the challenge, Switzerland is coping well with the influx of Ukrainian refugees, but we do not know how many more will come, says Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter.
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Acolhimento de refugiados ucranianos funciona bem na Suíça
At an early stage, Switzerland introduced a special “S” status for the refugees and involved relevant actors at different levels, she said in an interview with the Tages-Anzeiger published on Saturday. Likening the Swiss federal system to one of sculptor Jean Tinguely’s kinetic machines, she told the newspaper that “it takes time to get going, but once it starts, it works”.
But new issues arise every day and we don’t know how many more refugees will come, she continued. More accommodation will be needed in private homes. Keller-Sutter told the newspaper that she would soon appoint a person to develop medium- and long-term planning.
Some 22,000 Ukrainian refugees have been registered in Switzerland since Russia invaded its neighbour on February 24.
Return ‘as soon as possible’
Most of those who have fled the war – mainly women and children – do not consider themselves refugees and “want to return as soon as possible”, Keller-Sutter said.
Christine Schraner Burgener, head of the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), agrees. In an interview with Le Temps also published on Saturday, she said all the Ukrainian women she met on the border at Chiasso on March 30 “told me that they did not want to be dependent on society and that they wanted to return home as soon as possible”.
In the meantime, these often highly qualified women must be able to work, Schraner Burgener continued, stressing the need to tackle a shortage of childcare places.
There are currently, 9,000 places for the refugees in federal asylum centres, she told Le Temps, but this number should increase to 12,000 in the coming weeks.
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