Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
The discovery of a prostitution ring involving minors in Geneva highlights a worrying reality: vulnerable young people are sometimes trapped by criminal networks. This phenomenon, which is growing in French-speaking Switzerland, is also being debated in France.
In the Bernese Oberland, a group of hikers in Nazi uniforms attracted the attention of the police this weekend. They did not incur sanctions for the moment but this will soon change.
The police have dismantled a prostitution ring involving minors in a barber shop in Geneva, the Tribune de Genève revealed on Tuesday. The case highlights a phenomenon that is growing in French-speaking Switzerland, as well as in France.
Five men were arrested in early May in Geneva for encouraging and organising the sexual exploitation of minors. Several young girls would have met customers in the back room of the business, under the supervision of several defendants, who organised exchanges and transactions. One of the victims is said to be under 15 years old.
The prostitution of minors is spreading in French-speaking Switzerland, note associations that help sex workers. “Often, these are young people with very low self-esteem. There is a lot of suffering among them,” says a special education teacher. Some young people then end up at the mercy of criminal networks.
This kind of sexual exploitation is the subject of much discussion, especially in France. It is estimated that 20,000 children have been victims, a figure that has risen sharply since the Covid-19 pandemic, and by about 34% since 2021. In nearly 98% of cases, they are girls.
Since the beginning of the year, public transport in Geneva has been free for people under 25 and retired people benefit from reduced prices. However, the bill for this measure could turn out to be much higher than expected, reveals RTS.
The Geneva Grand Council had voted a budget of CHF32 million to implement the measure. But the demand is such that this amount will not be enough. According to the RTS report, the additional cost is somewhere between CHF10 million and CHF15 million.
One of the objectives of the project was to encourage the population to use public transport more. This does not seem to have been reached for the moment, since the increase in the number of people on buses and trams has barely reached 3%. However, some experts warn that the impact of free travel on the use of the network is measured in the long term. The Geneva department of transport denies the figures put forth by RTS “as well as the conclusions drawn from them”. However, it points out that the amount of CHF32 million set in the budget does not cover the deadweight effect induced by the measure, i.e. the increase in demand caused by public aid without changing behaviour.
A police intervention of an unusual kind took place this weekend in the Bernese Oberland. A group of hikers in Nazi uniforms were arrested, SRF reveals today.
Swastikas, berets and studded shoes. This is the outfit worn by a group of about 25 hikers in the Wildhorn massif. The men came from various European countries, as well as the United States. The Bern cantonal police were alerted to their presence on Friday.
Hikers were asked to remove their Nazi uniforms. The officers also took down their identities. SRF believes that this could be a group that, according to its own description, is dedicated to historical re-enactment. The idea behind such actions could be to organise some kind of commemoration and thus glorify the Nazi era. For the time being, these men do not risk any criminal consequences: in Switzerland wearing Nazi symbols is not yet banned. That will change, however, as parliament last year accepted a motion to ban and punish the public use of Nazi symbols. The Federal Council has drafted a law that should soon come into force.
Zurich politician Sanija Ameti, who had fired at a picture of Jesus, has been charged with violating freedom of religion. The co-president of Operation Libero, who left the Green Liberal Party at the beginning of the year, faces a fine.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office is demanding a suspended financial penalty of 100 days’ fines of CHF100, as well as a fine of CHF2,500 against Ameti. He believes that the defendant has ridiculed the Christian faith, humiliated it unnecessarily and underestimated it in a hurtful way while “potentially endangering freedom of religion”.
Ameti fired an air pistol about 20 times at an image of Jesus and Mary, from an auction house catalogue. She then posted on Instagram a photo of her act and her bullet-riddled target, adding the comment “deactivate” in German.
Ameti said she had not paid attention to what the image represented. “I needed sufficiently visible patterns for the ten-metre shot,” she said. She had also asked for forgiveness.
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