Swiss House supports role for foreigners in civil defence

Foreigners with right of residence should provide civil defence Keystone-SDA

The Swiss House of Representatives has voted in favour of foreign nationals with a long-term residence permit performing civil defence duties in Switzerland.

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The House reached its decision with 120 votes in favour, 66 against and two abstentions. The Senate must now deal with the motion.

Expanding compulsory service in this way could alleviate funding problems for civil defence organisations, wrote motion author Martin Candinas from the Center party.

It could also contribute to integration: men without Swiss citizenship would make a contribution to society and security in the same way as Swiss citizens. In various municipalities, they are already subject to compulsory firefighting duties.

According to Candinas, the impact on civil defence staffing levels would be significant. There are currently around 78,000 foreign nationals living in Switzerland with a permanent residence permit who are of conscription age (18 to 30). This equates to around 6,000 people per age group. If the same fitness criteria were applied as for Swiss nationals, theoretically around 4,800 additional conscripts could be recruited each year.

Warnings against unequal treatment

Defence Minister Martin Pfister argued unsuccessfully in the House in favour of rejecting the proposal. The federal government considers such an extension of compulsory service to be unequal treatment if duties but no rights are transferred. This is because foreign nationals in Switzerland are excluded from political co-determination rights at the federal level.

Moreover, foreign nationals of legal age who are resident in Switzerland can already volunteer for civil defence under the current law. The government has also instructed the Federal Department of Defence (DDPS) to submit a proposal for the further development of the compulsory service system by the end of 2027. In this context, greater involvement of the foreign population in Switzerland’s security should also be examined.

The House recently passed a motion in the current session that foreign nationals living in Switzerland should have to pay a security levy. This levy should be modelled on the military service tax.

According to the text of the motion, persons of legal age who are part of the permanent resident population but do not have Swiss citizenship would have to pay the tax. The proposal is pending in the Senate.

Translated from German by AI/jdp

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