Fall in irregular migration to Switzerland in 2023
The number of irregular migrants who entered Switzerland decreased slightly last year. The Federal Office for Customs and Border Security reported a total of 50,185 cases - almost 2,000, or 3.6% fewer than in 2022.
There was a significant drop in the number of people who entered the country without authorisation between October and December last year compared to 2022.
+ Switzerland and France unite against smugglers
Migrants from Afghanistan represented the lion’s share of the figures published on Wednesday – almost one in three of those stopped at Switzerland’s borders. They were followed by nationals from Morocco and Turkey, each accounted for one in eight undocumented stays.
+ Switzerland and Germany adopt plan on irregular migration
According to the Swiss federal government, most crossings occurred at Switzerland’s southern border with Italy.
The number of suspected smuggling cases decreased in 2023 compared to the previous year. In all, 388 suspected smugglers were stopped, according to Swiss government figures.
As a rule, these persons were handed over to the relevant cantonal police force or public prosecutor’s office.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
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.