Switzerland and Egypt sign migration accords
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening:
Switzerland and Egypt sign migration accords
Swiss Justice Minister Beat Jans signed two bilateral migration agreements with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty during his recent visit at the weekend.
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
This marks the beginning of a new phase in close cooperation between the two countries, Jans declared in Cairo.
Egypt is the world’s second largest host country for refugees. Due to its proximity to several conflict zones, such as Sudan, and to Europe, it plays a strategic role as a place of transit and destination.
One of the agreements foresees strengthening support given to Egypt as a host country and intensifying bilateral cooperation in several areas: legal migration, the fight against human trafficking, readmission and voluntary return. The second agreement introduces visa-free travel for diplomats.
During his visit, Jans was able to get a first-hand impression of migration projects in and around Cairo, including the registration centre of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) is working closely with the UN agency at the site.
More
Migrants in Switzerland speak of gratitude, pride – and setbacks
The Swiss minister reiterated the importance of this relationship and announced an additional contribution of CHF1.2 million ($1.5 million) by the end of 2026. Within the framework of the resettlement programme, Switzerland has so far accepted around 380 refugees from Egypt, the last 40 last October.
Another stop during his visit was the site of a Save the Children project, which takes in Palestinian children and offers them a safe environment in which to learn and play. The Swiss minister met children and parents who had been evacuated from the Gaza Strip for medical reasons.
Translated from Italian by DeepL/sb
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch
External Content
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.