Refugee Office moots loosening of asylum policy

Jean-Daniel Gerber presented a report in January showing a big fall in the number of asylum requests Keystone

People seeking asylum in Switzerland may soon find it easier to qualify for refugee status, under new proposals being considered by the Federal Refugee Office. The changes are timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Geneva Convention on Refugees.

Under the new proposal, asylum seekers will be entitled to refugee status if they face any sort of persecution at home. At present, applicants can only seek asylum on the grounds of persecution if the persecution is perpetrated by their government or state bodies.

In an interview with the German-language “Tages Anzeiger” newspaper, the head of the Refugee Office, Jean-Daniel Gerber, said the new policy would bring Switzerland into line with other European countries. He said it would also reflect more accurately the current situation with internal conflicts raging in many countries.

“France and Germany are currently changing their policies to bring them into line with the new conditions,” Gerber told the paper. “So it seemed time for us to consider a change in practice, too.”

Gerber said the modification would not require any changes to current Swiss asylum legislation. He said Switzerland would simply be reinterpreting the wording of the Geneva Convention.

According to Gerber, asylum seekers from Afghanistan would be among those to benefit if the policy change went ahead, because although the Taliban movement controls most of the country, it is not recognised as a legitimate government carrying out state-led persecution.

“People fleeing Afghanistan are entitled to protection here,” Gerber said. “At present we can only give those people temporary residence, but in future we’d like to be able to grant them refugee status.”

“The same goes for certain categories of persecuted people from the Algerian countryside who can only escape the Islamic terror by fleeing abroad.”

Gerber said he had discussed the proposed change with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees earlier this year, and had brought it to the attention of the justice minister, Ruth Metzler.

The Refugee Office is to formally submit the proposal to the ministry when it has worked out all the costs and the likely effect on the number of asylum requests in Switzerland, Gerber said.

swissinfo with agencies