Federal Councillor Beat Jans defends Swiss asylum policy
Keystone-SDA
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Swiss justice minister defends asylum policy
Swiss Justice Minister Beat Jans has rejected criticism of Switzerland’s asylum policy. In an interview, he said Switzerland was doing well compared with other European countries.
This content was published on
3 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Deutsch
de
Bundesrat Beat Jans verteidigt Schweizer Asylpolitik
Original
The number of asylum applications had fallen, there were fewer pending cases and more rejected asylum-seekers were returning to their countries, Jans told the Tamedia newspapers. The new 24-hour procedure was working and the security situation in the asylum centers had also improved, he said. In addition, Switzerland had only half as many cases of people being apprehended at the border as in the previous year.
Jans also commented on the latest developments in asylum policy in European countries. According to Tamedia, a hectic pace has broken out there. He emphasised how delicate certain projects could be and cited Italy as an example. The government there wanted to carry out asylum procedures in Albania, but was turned down by a court in Rome.
Criticism of new head of SEM
Jans also defended the choice of the new head of the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) in the interview. He was convinced that he had the right man at the helm in Vincenzo Mascioli.
Mascioli’s nomination for the post had been sharply criticised by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party and the centre-right Radical-Liberal Party in recent weeks. “The choice of Mascioli is the wrong choice,” explained People’s Party spokesperson Andrea Sommer at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency.
Mascioli has been responsible for Switzerland’s repatriation policy as SEM deputy director for several years. During this time, the number of returns had fallen instead of rising, Sommer said.
The current asylum policy is not in the interests of the Swiss population, she added. There is an urgent need for more stringent measures in the area of asylum, for example “against the rampant asylum abuse and exploding asylum-related crime”.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
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.
What factors should be taken into account when inheriting Swiss citizenship abroad?
Should there be a limit to the passing on of Swiss citizenship? Or is the current practice too strict and it should still be possible to register after the age of 25?
Is your place of origin, your Heimatort, important to you?
Every Swiss citizen has a Heimatort, a place of origin, but many have never visited theirs. What’s your relationship with your Heimatort? What does it mean to you?
Trump tariffs: ‘I’m a bit perplexed’, says former US ambassador to Switzerland
This content was published on
The former US ambassador to Switzerland, Edward McMullen, says he is optimistic for the Alpine country with regard to the 31% tariff on imports imposed by US President Donald Trump.
Swiss Federal Court upholds Beny Steinmetz’s bribery conviction
This content was published on
Switzerland's highest court has upheld the conviction of French-Israeli mining magnate Beny Steinmetz for bribery of foreign public officials.
This content was published on
The Trump administration has imposed a 31% tariff on imports from Switzerland. Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter has warned against "giving in to alarmism" in an interview published on Saturday,
This content was published on
Scientists have shown that bonobos combine their calls into complex sound sequences that resemble combinations of human words.
This content was published on
US parliamentarians have threatened the UN Human Rights Council with sanctions similar to those against the International Criminal Court (ICC).
This content was published on
Thanks to abundant snowfall, lift operators benefited from increased visitor numbers, with the number of guests jumping by 12% year-on-year.
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.