Asylum seekers from Kosovo and Georgia will have much shorter stays in Switzerland
Keystone
The Federal Office for Migration has extended fast-track decision-making to asylum seekers from Kosovo and Georgia. Cases not needing clarification will be considered within 48 hours and deportations will take effect soon afterwards.
This content was published on
1 minute
swissinfo.ch and agencies
A similar procedure was instituted in August 2012 for asylum seekers from Serbia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. This led to a marked drop in the number of applications received from those countries.
Applications from Kosovars and Georgians are generally considered unfounded by the migration office. In 2009, the cabinet designated Kosovo a secure state, meaning that Kosovo is in the process of being reconstructed and makes an effort to integrate minorities. Citizens of Georgia are also considered not to be in need of protection from persecution.
In 2012, 28,631 applications for asylum were filed, most of them by citizens of Eritrea, Nigeria, Tunisia, Serbia, Afghanistan and Syria. The number was the highest since 1999. Of 579 requests filed by Kosovars and 726 filed by Georgians in 2012, only six were granted in total.
The high number of applications has prompted Switzerland to take measures to speed up the asylum process. One of the main features is the roughly 20 planned national centres which would house asylum seekers, authorities, experts and legal advisors. However, finding locations to host the centres has proven to be difficult.
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.
Read more
More
Zurich provides test case for new asylum centres
This content was published on
Space for the new centre has been set aside in an area in the west of Zurich. The city expects to save around SFr1 million ($1.1 million) by hosting the centre due to the fact that the federal government will take care of schooling, housing and security concerns for the asylum seekers to be housed…
This content was published on
“Sometimes people form an attitude about a situation before they have all the background information,” says Doris Bucheli, president of the town council in Wünnewil-Flamatt, canton Fribourg, where an asylum centre is about to close after the completion of its year-long contract. “We thought, these people are here, we will accept this challenge and try…
This content was published on
War-torn regions saw the highest number of asylum seekers, with Afghans filing the most requests. The number of asylum seekers from Syria more than tripled in 2012 to 24,800, placing it just behind Afghanistan; Syria was 11th on the list just one year ago. The number of Syrian asylum seekers grew dramatically beginning in September…
This content was published on
In 2012, 28,631 applications were filed, most of them from Eritrea, followed by Nigeria, Tunisia, Serbia, Afghanistan and Syria, the Federal Migration Office said on Tuesday. And, the number of decisions that were made at the applicant’s first contact point rose 28 per cent from 2011. Switzerland decided to give priority to applications not requiring…
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.