Asylum seekers face tougher approach from Switzerland

Swiss centres for asylum seekers feel overwhelmed. KEYSTONE/© KEYSTONE / TI-PRESS / PABLO GIANINAZZI

Swiss Justice Minister Beat Jans has proposed a series of measures to ease the burden on centres accommodating asylum seekers. Jans is calling for tougher action against criminal asylum seekers, expanding a 24-hour application process for asylum seekers who have little prospect of being accepted and a freeze on applications at weekends.

Jans announced the reforms in the asylum sector to the media on Tuesday after visiting the federal asylum centre in Chiasso. Last November, Jans’ predecessor in the Department of Justice, Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, held out the prospect of measures to improve the asylum centre after Chiasso hit the headlines due to criminal asylum seekers.

+ Security to be tightened at Chiasso asylum centre

However, Baume-Schneider, who has since moved to the Federal Department of Home Affairs, remained vague in her statements during her visit to Ticino at the time. She said she would first have to carefully analyse the situation.

After just under two months in office, Jans has now announced concrete measures. For example, he is proposing to extend the 24-hour procedure, which has been successfully tested in recent months at the federal asylum centre in Zurich, to all federal asylum centres with a procedural function by the end of April 2024.

In order to conclude applications with no prospect of asylum as quickly as possible, all essential procedural steps will be carried out within this very short period of time. Asylum seekers from countries of origin with very little prospect of being recognised as asylum seekers should also have to justify their asylum application in writing in advance.

+ Why Switzerland is piloting a 24-hour asylum process

To counteract the abuse of asylum structures, asylum applications will in future only be able to be submitted during the week. According to Jans, this should prevent asylum seekers from having to be accommodated in federal asylum centres over the weekend and having to leave again before their fingerprints can be taken on Monday and the asylum procedure formally opened.

Vulnerable asylum seekers such as women travelling alone, families, unaccompanied minors and sick or elderly people should continue to be accommodated at the weekend, according to Jans. The aim is also to prevent asylum seekers from being without shelter at the weekend.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga

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