The number of people applying for asylum in Switzerland in November increased by nearly 20 per cent over the previous month.
This content was published on
1 minute
swissinfo.ch and agencies
According to the Federal Migration Office, 2,566 requests were filed by people entering the country, mostly from Tunisia, Eritrea and Serbia. Most of the Serbian citizens belong to the Rom community.
For the past three months, there has been a spike in asylum requests after a relatively quiet summer. Since the beginning of the year, more than 20,000 people have filed for asylum, 41.5 per cent more than in the same period in 2010.
The situation has forced the authorities to open new centres to house the latest arrivals as many other existing sites have already reached full capacity.
The migration office said that 357 people were returned to another state under the rules of the Dublin Regulation, which is designed to avoid asylum seekers making requests in more than one of the signatory states. Nearly 70 per cent of these deportations were to Italy.
Last year, 17.7 per cent of asylum requests in Switzerland resulted in refugee status being granted.
Popular Stories
More
Life & Aging
Zurich: how the world capital of housing shortages is tackling the problem
Is your place of origin, your Heimatort, important to you?
Every Swiss citizen has a Heimatort, a place of origin, but many have never visited theirs. What’s your relationship with your Heimatort? What does it mean to you?
In Switzerland more people are being referred to electrical therapies or psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Are there similar approaches where you live?
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
Tunisian asylum seekers face image problem
This content was published on
But has this group of Tunisians really earned a reputation as troublemakers and if so, what is going wrong? Unofficial police statistics from Zurich, published this week in the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, backed up the alarming headline: “Number of criminal North Africans set to double by the end of the year”. Swiss Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga…
This content was published on
Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga has mooted an amendment to the zoning laws and plans for an emergency concept to ease the shortage of accommodation for people applying for asylum in Switzerland. Despite agreement in principle between the federal and cantonal authorities, it has become apparent that plans to create additional capacities for 2,000 asylum seekers…
This content was published on
The Federation has come under sustained criticism for its role in the monitoring of deportation flights from many of its members who felt the participation in the pilot project was tantamount to supporting the deportations. As a signatory to Europe’s Dublin accord on asylum seekers, Switzerland is obliged to have a monitoring system for deportation flights…
This content was published on
As part of the editorial photography course at Lucerne’s MAZ School of Journalism, Benjamin Manser, in cooperation with swissinfo.ch, met residents of a shelter for asylum seekers in Amriswil, Thurgau, who are waiting for the Federal Migration Office to rule on their claims for asylum.
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.