UN sees need for improvement in Swiss asylum centres

Accommodation for asylum-seekers in Fribourg © Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR has noted improvements in the accommodation of asylum-seekers in Switzerland. However, significant gaps in the federal asylum centres remain, including in the care of people with special needs and in the prevention of violence, the UNHCR announced on Monday.

After visiting 12 federal asylum centres in 2021 and 2022 in all asylum regions of Switzerland and talking to 269 asylum-seekers and 218 people working in the federal asylum centres, the UNHCR made several recommendations. The UN organisation also aimed to evaluate the new asylum system that was introduced in 2019.

Even though the number of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum has increased, the UNHCR called for the quality of care and continuation of school attendance to be ensured. There was also a lack of a mechanism to systematically identify special needs; staff in the federal asylum centres should be made more aware of this.

+ Swiss asylum centres recorded some 2,000 violent incidents in 2022

According to the UNHCR, there is also a lack of information for asylum-seekers, anonymous complaints mechanisms, low-threshold psychological and psychosocial support services, addiction prevention programmes and programmes for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.

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