New asylum accommodation to cost Swiss government over CHF200 million
The Federal Council is requesting eleven supplementary credits from Parliament. The two largest relate to reserve power plants at CHF315 million ($357 million) and migration expenditure at CHF255 million - the majority of which is to be spent on additional accommodation, including security and support, due to increasing asylum applications.
This content was published on
3 minutes
Keystone-SDA
The supplementary credits total CHF604 million, as announced by the Federal Council on Friday. The expenditure would be offset by additional revenue and would be budget-neutral for the Confederation.
The credit request of CHF315 million for the reserve power plants is due to the additional costs incurred by the Federal Office of Energy as a result of the division of labour between the federal government and Swissgrid. However, according to the Federal Council, these will be “fully financed by additional income from the tarif for grid usage”.
Reducing pending issues
The government justifies the additional costs of CHF255 million in the area of asylum with the fact that the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) now expects 33,000 asylum applications and around 25,000 additional applications for S status for 2024. This is significantly more than was envisaged in the budget. At that time, the assumption was 20,000 asylum applications and 10,000 status S applications.
The majority of the credit is to be used for additional accommodation, including security and support. CHF239 million has been earmarked for this. In addition, the SEM is to be given more capacity for processing asylum applications. The 85.9 additional temporary full-time positions are intended to ensure that there is no large backlog of pending applications. A further CHF16 million has been requested for interpreter services.
CHF1 million for the Women’s European Football Championship
The other supplementary credits include a support package for humanitarian demining. They also cover issues such as combating the misuse of Covid-19 bail-outs, legal costs in connection with the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS and the organisation of the European Women’s Football Championship. The latter will cost CHF1 million.
Adapted from German by DeepL/kc/amva
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, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Switzerland to introduce flight passenger database
This content was published on
Switzerland plans to introduce a flight passenger database to collect and process personal data in a bid to combat terrorism and serious crime.
Government plans to invest over CHF16bn in Swiss rail network
This content was published on
The federal government intends to invest CHF16.4 billion ($18.1 billion) in railway infrastructure between 2025 and 2028, CHF2 billion more than for the current period.
Swiss to vote on pension reform and biodiversity in September
This content was published on
Swiss citizens will vote on occupational pension schemes and a biodiversity initiative on September 22, the Federal Council announced on Wednesday.
Ukraine peace talks: 50 countries have confirmed participation
This content was published on
To date, 50 countries out 160 invited delegations have confirmed they will attend the Ukraine peace conference, held in central Switzerland in mid-June, according to Swiss public radio, RTS.
Federer-backed On boosts forecast after sneaker demand rises
This content was published on
Swiss footwear company On Holding AG posted strong first-quarter revenue, boosted by demand for its running shoes and new line of training apparel.
Michael Schumacher’s watches fetch CHF4 million at Swiss auction
This content was published on
Watches belonging to Formula 1 great Michael Schumacher sold for around CHF4 million ($4.41 million) at auction house Christie's in Geneva on Tuesday.
Macron will attend Swiss summit on Ukraine, says Zelensky
This content was published on
French President Emmanuel Macron will attend the peace conference on Ukraine at the Swiss Bürgenstock resort next month, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.
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.