Funding for Swiss halting sites set to drop in 2025-2028

A transit site near Thun, canton Bern. Keystone / Peter Schneider

Federal funding for itinerate communities is to be cut – largely because local authorities do not take advantage of the money already available.

The funding in question is specifically related to stopping sites for travelling people within the Yenish and Sinti communities, SRF public radio reported on Monday.

According to 2025-2028 plans by the Federal Office for Culture, the money available to cantons and municipalities for preparing such sites is to fall by 7% over the three-year period: from CHF1.7 million in 2024 to CHF1.3 million in 2028.

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The culture office said the reason for the cut was that local authorities have not been making use of the funds, mainly because setting up these sites is a complicated process due to zoning regulations and social resistance.

It doesn’t make sense to set money aside which is not used, the office said.

Associations including the Society for Threatened Peoples criticised the planned reduction and said federal, cantonal and local authorities were shirking their responsibilities.

The problem of finding suitable halting sites remains difficult, especially in summer, and the cuts contradict a need for more action, advocacy groups say.

Yenish and Sinti have been recognised as a national ethnic minority in Switzerland since 1999, when the country signed the Council of Europe’s Framework ConventionExternal link for the protection of minorities. Only a small proportion are itinerate rather than settled.