Switzerland has no plans for strict controls on Italy border
Switzerland currently does not want to introduce strict controls on the border with Italy, said Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider on Thursday on the sidelines of the EU Interior Ministers meeting in Luxembourg.
In response to the high number of refugees and migrants, Germany announced on Monday that it would introduce border controls with Switzerland.
+ Migration is a key issue on the minds of Swiss voters
Baume-Schneider, who heads the justice department, indicated that she understood the decision by Germany after a fatal accident that took place recently. She was alluding to an incident in south-eastern Germany, where a suspected smuggling vehicle crashed while fleeing the police last week. Seven people were killed.
Switzerland does not want to introduce strict border controls with Italy. It has already increased the number of personnel in the border guard corps. More selective controls are currently sufficient, said the government minister.
Many Swiss regions on the border such as cantons Ticino and Basel have close economic ties to neighbours.
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.
More
Why Switzerland is among the ten fastest-warming countries in the world
More
In Switzerland four out of ten people have a migrant background – who are they?
More
Suicides in Switzerland quadruple among older people
More
French gangs target luxury cars in Switzerland
More
Renewed controversy in Switzerland over US fighter jets – explained
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.