The Swiss voice in the world since 1935
Top stories
Stay in touch with Switzerland

Crime drops under open borders in Switzerland

Swiss border post
Last year Switzerland handed out 590,000 Schengen visas to people from third states, who can then travel within the Schengen area for 90 days Keystone

Reported crime has fallen by more than 20% since the introduction of the Schengen/Dublin agreement in Switzerland ten years ago. However, the number of perpetrators who do not have a Swiss residence permit has increased by almost 15%. 

Fears that crime would rise after Swiss voters said yes to membership of Schengen/Dublin have failed to materialise, according to the NZZ am SonntagExternal link, citing data from the Federal Statistical Office. 

While the overall number of criminal offences registered by the police dropped by more than 20% between 2009 and 2017, the number of break-ins fell by 37%. 

The NZZ am Sonntag pointed out that the category of offenders without a Swiss residence permit included criminal tourists, i.e. people who travel to Switzerland in order to commit a crime. 

“While there’s still room for improvement, ten years of Schengen partnership has been a success story for Switzerland that you can’t imagine not existing,” said Priska Seiler Graf from the leftwing Social Democratic Party. 

Under Schengen, Switzerland abandoned identity checks on its borders, but it gained access to a Europe-wide crime database. “Without being part of the Schengen Information SystemExternal link, our police force would basically be blind,” she said. 

Schengen visas 

In addition, last year Switzerland handed out 590,000 of the total 14.7 million Schengen visas to people from third states, who can then travel within the Schengen area for 90 days. 

In Switzerland, most of these visas went to businesspeople from China and India, but also to people from Thailand, Russia and Kosovo. 

“If the Schengen visa were to be discontinued [in Switzerland], these people would need an additional visa to visit Switzerland, with corresponding consequences for tourism, business and science,” the government wrote in a report in February. 

Asylum seekers 

Regarding the Dublin accord, between 2009 and 2018 Switzerland turned away almost 29,800 asylum seekers who had already filed a request in another signatory country. 

In return, other countries sent around 6,400 asylum seekers back to Switzerland, although this figure is expected to increase as Germany, France and the Netherlands have started sending more asylum seekers to Switzerland in the past year. 

Despite this, Kurt Fluri from the centre-right Radical-Liberal Party talks of a “massively positive overall assessment” of Schengen/Dublin for Switzerland.

More

More

Demographics

Switzerland’s defence of the Dublin accords is not a coincidence

This content was published on Although Switzerland is not one of the main destination countries for asylum seekers, between 2009 and 2014 it was the country that transferred the most migrants to another EU state.  This practice is part of the Dublin accords, signed in 1990 and adopted by Switzerland in December 2008. According to this agreement, an asylum application…

Read more: Switzerland’s defence of the Dublin accords is not a coincidence


Popular Stories

News

Bern exhibition reunites pair of Kirchner paintings after 92 years

More

Culture

Bern exhibition reunites Kirchner paintings after 92 years

This content was published on The painting Sonntag der Bergbauern (Alpsonntag) [Sunday of the Mountain Farmers (Alp Sunday) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938) is being transferred from Berlin to Bern to feature in an upcoming exhibition at Kunstmuseum Bern.

Read more: Bern exhibition reunites Kirchner paintings after 92 years
The population of the Upper Engadine approves the extension of its airport

More

Voters approve extension of Engadine Airport in Switzerland

This content was published on Residents in the Upper Engadine region gave the greenlight on Sunday to the expansion of the regional airport at Samedan, one of Europe’s highest airports (1,707 metres) that serves the nearby resorts of St Moritz and Davos.

Read more: Voters approve extension of Engadine Airport in Switzerland
Pay rises planned for Swiss employees next year

More

Workplace

Swiss businesses plan employee pay raises in 2026

This content was published on Swiss companies' expectations for salary growth are down by 0.3 percentage points compared to a year ago, according to a survey conducted by the Center for Economic Research (KOF).

Read more: Swiss businesses plan employee pay raises in 2026
6,400 apprenticeships to be filled this autumn in Switzerland

More

Workplace

Over 6,000 apprenticeships remain unfilled in Switzerland

This content was published on By mid-August, which is the start of the Swiss school year, some 6,400 apprenticeship vacancies remain, mainly in the construction, catering and machinery industries.

Read more: Over 6,000 apprenticeships remain unfilled in Switzerland
Golden Leopard for Japanese film "Tabi to Hibi" at Locarno

More

Culture

Japanese film Tabi to Hibi wins Golden Leopard at Locarno

This content was published on The Japanese film Tabi to Hibi by director Sho Miyake won the Golden Leopard, the top prize in the international competition, on the final day of the Locarno Festival.

Read more: Japanese film Tabi to Hibi wins Golden Leopard at Locarno

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.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR