Swiss writers help Afghan counterparts in asylum bid

Kite runner: a young boy plays above Kabul, February 2022. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All Right Reserved

Some 40 Afghan writers and their family members have managed to flee to Switzerland since the Taliban takeover, helped by a campaign by Swiss authors.

The campaign to help the intellectuals escape was driven by literature professor Sabine Haupt and backed by the German-speaking Swiss section of the PEN association, the Wochenzeitung (WOZ) weekly newspaper reportsExternal link in its Thursday edition. Prominent authors such as Charles Lewinsky and Lukas Bärfuss also lent support.

Daniel Rothenbühler, president of the Swiss German PEN Centre, told the Keystone-SDA news agency that the campaign involved the Swiss authors “sponsoring” the Afghans – with financial help, exchanging mails about their situation, or collecting them on arrival.

The WOZ writes that this “sponsoring” was also largely a way to boost the chances of a successful humanitarian visa application: under eligibility conditions, Swiss authorities look at whether the applicants have any “connection” to Switzerland, the paper writes.

It reports that 40 people have until now arrived in Switzerland from Afghanistan after successfully getting a humanitarian visa. Nine others are reportedly awaiting a response. The Pen Centre has also appealed rejected applications at the Federal Administrative Court in St Gallen.

According to Rothenbühler, the PEN Centre, which initially did not want to make their campaign public, has worked together with the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), for whom it “didn’t want to cause political problems”.

In August 2021, following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover, Swiss authorities concentrated on the evacuation of citizens and local staff from the development agency in Kabul, but ruled out – at least in the short term – any larger asylum offer, despite pressure from left-wing parties and even the UN.