Switzerland wants to resume resettlement for vulnerable refugees
The resettlement programme is currently suspended due to pressure on the asylum system.
Keystone / Alessandra Tarantino
The Swiss government has approved a 2024-2025 resettlement programme for vulnerable refugees, with a quota of up to 1,600.
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However, the programme “will only be activated in consultation with the cantons and municipalities and on condition that there is a significant improvement in the accommodation and support situation for asylum seekers”, says a government press releaseExternal link on Friday.
In 2019, the government came out in favour of Switzerland’s long-term participation in the resettlement activities of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, instructing the justice ministry to propose every two years an admission quota of between 1,500 and 2,000 refugees to be resettled. The programme involves resettling particularly vulnerable people from their first country of refuge. For example, it has taken some refugees trapped in Libya who first went to Niger.
The current programme (2022-2023) provides for the resettlement of up to 1,820 refugees to Switzerland. However, it has been suspended since April 1 “to take account of the current pressure on the Swiss asylum system”. To date, a total of 980 people have found refuge in Switzerland under this programme, according to the press release.
It says geographical priorities will remain the same as for the current programme and correspond to the regions where the needs are greatest: at least 90% of the refugees resettled should be people fleeing acute conflicts and personal persecution in the Middle East and along the central Mediterranean route to Europe.
“As a humanitarian instrument, resettlement provides support to countries of first refuge, where more than 80% of the world’s refugees live,” says the government.
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