The Swiss voice in the world since 1935
Top stories
Stay in touch with Switzerland

Switzerland can continue to host asylum seekers in civil defence shelters

Picture of a lounge with people outside the building
If a high number of asylum applications is recorded, Switzerland may continue to use civil defence facilities. © Keystone / Christian Beutler

The Swiss government decided on Friday that asylum seekers can continue to be accommodated in civil defence facilities in the event of refugees housing shortages.

If a high number of asylum applications is recorded, the Confederation and the cantons may continue to use civil defence facilities. The Swiss government’s ordinance has been extended until December.

More

Switzerland has currently sufficient capacity for the registration and reception of new asylum seekers, said the Federal Department of Defence in a statement External linkon Friday.

However, if temporary asylum applications exceed the usual numbers, the Confederation can now continue to use civil defence facilities. The ordinance was therefore extended until December 31, 2025.

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. You can find them here

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Daily news

Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox.

Daily

The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.

Popular Stories

News

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

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.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR