Swiss Justice Minister Beat Jans expects a 10% increase in the number of refugees entering the Alpine state in 2024. That corresponds to 3,000 more people than last year who need accommodating in federal asylum centres.
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More asylum seekers will arrive in the autumn and winter, said the head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP) in the Saturday Review aired by Swiss public broadcaster SRF.
According to the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), there is a shortage of 2,400 beds in Switzerland to accommodate them.
To cover the increasing capacities, the authorities are in contact with the army and the cantons for further cooperation.
The cantons will receive money to provide accommodation such as civil defence facilities. However, some of these facilities still need to be brought up to scratch. SEM is constantly looking for new accommodation options.
Jans hopes that parliament will approve the supplementary credit so that more money is available for the asylum infrastructure.
Without additional financial resources, it will not be possible to provide more civil protection centres and even more applicants will have to be deported to the cantons, which in turn would cause more problems.
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In this case, the cantons would have to take over the asylum procedures from the federal government earlier. This would make the asylum decision even slower and more expensive, says Jans.
Translated from German by DeepL/mga
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