‘Deported’ Italian couple allowed to stay

The justice authorities in canton St Gallen changed their mind about deporting the Italian couple Keystone

An Italian couple living in canton St Gallen, who had been ordered to leave Switzerland because of repeated drug offences, have now been told they can stay. 

The couple, both of whom are over 50, grew up in Switzerland. They have frequently been convicted for drug crimes, including buying heroin. Both are HIV positive and live off a disability pension and social welfare. 

In 2011 St Gallen’s cantonal migration office ordered their deportation. Various appeals against this decision were rejected, most recently by the federal court in November 2013. 

As a last resort, the couple lodged an appeal for reconsideration with the cantonal commission for safety and justice. This institution concluded that, given the couple’s positive development over the past three years and their state of health, the situation had changed and therefore approved the appeal. 

After the case became public, a committee collected 2,300 signatures demanding that people who have spent their entire life in Switzerland should not be deported. 

Controversy 

The decision generated much debate in St Gallen, with the local fraction of the conservative right Swiss People’s Party instructing the cantonal commission for the administration of justice to clarify the case. 

This commission investigated the deportation annulment and concluded that everything had been conducted properly and the judicial and procedural rules had been adhered to. 

It said the approval of the reconsideration appeal had been a discretionary decision. It added that the annulment of the deportation had in the meantime been made legally binding. 

In 2010, 52% of voters approved an initiative, brought by the People’s Party, for the automatic deportation of foreigners found guilty of a crime. Implementing this has been problematic, however, with Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga saying in November 2013 that one particular clause in the latest initiative violated international law.