The government has confirmed the Federal Migration Office breached the law in awarding supervision of its seven asylum centres to the same organisation.
This content was published on
1 minute
swissinfo.ch and agencies
An internal review found the Migration Office had awarded the management contracts for the seven sites to ORS Service for the past 20 years. Such contracts should have gone out to tender every five years.
The Zurich firm has been running the centres since 1991 although new legislation was introduced in 1996 which states each new contract should have gone out to tender, the cabinet wrote in response to a question by Swiss People’s Party politician Heinz Brand.
While no new tenders were launched for the contracts awarded to ORS, “it was mainly because collaboration with ORS had been tried and tested since the first contract was awarded in 1991”, the government noted in its response.
The Migration Office however will be launching a new tender this year. Migration Head Michael Glauser told the Swiss News Agency that taking care of asylum seekers was a “very demanding job”, involving different cultures and tensions that can arise in asylum centres, and which demands a high degree of professionalism.
ORS employs 300 people and takes care of around 4,000 asylum seekers every day. ORS told Swiss radio it would be following the situation closely and intended to apply for a future tender.
Popular Stories
More
Banking & Fintech
UBS releases ‘hundreds’ of staff in fresh wave of job cuts
Should Switzerland take measures to support its struggling industries?
Industrial policies are back in fashion, not only in the United States but also in the EU. Should Switzerland, where various industries are struggling, draw inspiration from such policies?
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
Bern considers tying aid to asylum cooperation
This content was published on
“Take back citizens who have been refused asylum or we will cut off your development aid!” That’s the gist of the message Bern could be sending to those countries whose subjects are among the main asylum seekers to Switzerland. The plans are targeted in particular towards African and Arab Spring countries. Even though such a…
This content was published on
Escaping one of the world’s most repressive regimes, Eritreans are fleeing the Horn of Africa in droves. Some 3,356 applied for asylum in Switzerland in 2011, making them the largest group of asylum seekers. The high numbers of Eritreans contributed to a 45 per cent increase in asylum applications in Switzerland last year – up…
This content was published on
She based her decision on an external report which concluded that previous changes set in motion by her predecessor, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, had made the process worse. Two days earlier the non-governmental Swiss Refugee Council said asylum seeker requests could be reduced if Switzerland handled applications more quickly, pointing out that the rapid treatment of cases that…
This content was published on
This week some 400 concerned residents from Pully, an affluent small town on the edge of Lausanne, attended a heated information session regarding the imminent opening of an underground civil protection shelter to hold 50 asylum seekers. Despite agreement in principle between the federal and cantonal authorities, plans to create additional capacities for 2,000 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.