Last year 14,928 people applied for asylum in the Alpine nation, 3,887 more than in 2020. The number of applications surpasses the level of 2019 (14,269).
The rise in the number of requests was primarily due to “less drastic” travel restrictions, the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) said in a statementExternal link on Tuesday.
Over the past 12 months requests were mainly from people from Afghanistan (3,079, including family reunions and births), Turkey, Eritrea, Syria and Algeria.
A total of 1,380 people arrived in Switzerland under an international resettlement programme, mostly Syrians, Afghans and Sudanese nationals.
Overall, the number of asylum-related departures from Switzerland increased by 14.3% compared with 2020. A total of 973 people left Switzerland voluntarily (2020: 1,051 people). In all, 1,655 people were returned either to their state of origin or to a third state (2020: 1,518 people) and 1,127 to a so-called Dublin state (2020: 715 people).
Crisis and conflict
This year SEM expects around 16,500 asylum requests.
“Given the multitude of centres of crisis and conflict that exist in the Near East, the Middle East and on the African continent, the potential for migration to Europe remains high,” it said.
The number of arrivals in Switzerland will largely depend on the development of migration to Greece, Bulgaria and southern Italy as well as secondary migration via the Balkan route and Italy, SEM said. The Covid-19 pandemic could also have an impact on the volume and staggering of requests.
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