Far fewer unaccompanied minors apply for asylum in Switzerland
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening:
Far fewer unaccompanied minors apply for asylum in Switzerland
Last year, the number of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in Switzerland dropped by nearly 40% compared to 2023.
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
The decline can be attributed to a dwindling number of applications from Afghan, Turkish and Syrian nationals.
Persons traveling alone who claimed to be minors and applied in the country totaled 2,639, a figure equivalent to 12.4% of all asylum applications (17.9% in 2023), the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) said.
In the year under review, the majority of unaccompanied minors came from Afghanistan (1,295; 49%), a figure that equates to a 53% decrease compared to 2023 (2,774), the note points out. From Somalia came 217, Algeria 214, Morocco 202 and Guinea 111.
The most represented age group was between 16 and 17 (76.2%), while unaccompanied minors aged 13 to 15 were significantly fewer (22.2%). Those between the ages of 8 and 12, on the other hand, were only 1.4%. Almost all of them were male (95.2%), SEM points out.
More
Switzerland reports drop in asylum applications in 2024
The data refer to the age declared by the applicants themselves when they entered a federal asylum centre. Audits conducted in the past, however, have revealed that about a quarter of young asylum seekers are clearly over the age of 18.
In the year under review, the actual number of asylum applications filed could therefore undergo a sharp downward adjustment as well, said SEM.
What is your opinion? Join the debate:
External Content
Translated from Italian by DeepL/mga
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.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
More
Mennonite movement turns 500 in Zurich, where it all began
More
Swiss cantons issue heat warnings
More
In Switzerland four out of ten people have a migrant background – who are they?
More
Renewed controversy in Switzerland over US fighter jets – explained
More
Swiss private bank vaults house CHF3.4 trillion
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.