Task force to crack down on Nigerian criminals

The top official at the Federal Migration Office has said he will establish a task force to stop abuse of the asylum system by Nigerian criminals.

In an interview with the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper published on Sunday, director Alard du Bois-Reymond said 99.5 per cent of asylum-seekers from the West African country had no chance of asylum in Switzerland.

“They do not come as refugees but to do business,” he said, referring to petty crime and drug trafficking.

The task force, which will include federal and cantonal officials, will try to figure out how to more quickly return rejected asylum seekers to Nigeria. It intends to present a package of measures in the summer.

A 29-year-old Nigerian died in March shortly before a deportation flight. The man, a convicted drug dealer, had refused to leave the country and was on a hunger strike.

Du Bois-Reymond also weighed in on the integration of Muslims. Of the 350,000 Muslims in Switzerland, some 10,000 are considered orthodox believers. “Above all we must make clear that in Switzerland, we have our values and our laws.”

He made no promises of success in integrating Islamic converts in Switzerland. Some, he said, wanted a radically different society “comparable with the former Red Army Faction terrorists”.

Those individuals posed a security risk for the country, he said.

swissinfo.ch and agencies