Switzerland launches probe into suspected asylum centre violence

Private security guards and police control the entrance to the federal asylum centre at Boudry, canton Neuchâtel on September 1, 2018. © Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

An independent investigation has been opened into allegations of violence at several federal asylum centres in Switzerland.

Former federal judge Niklaus Oberholzer has been chosen to lead the investigation after criminal complaints were filed, the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) confirmed on Wednesday.

This follows a series of media reports into the excessive use of force at federal centres. Appropriate procedures and reporting by security staff were also not followed correctly, SEM saidExternal link. Fourteen private security staff have been suspended at three centres, including eight at Boudry in canton Neuchâtel.

“Cases of ill-treatment are regularly denounced in the six large centres opened by the Swiss government to accelerate asylum requests. But often the word of the victims is called into question,” said Swiss public television, RTS, which has carried out an investigation together with German-speaking SRF.

It said it had confirmed claims of excessive use of force by security officers when dealing with problematic asylum seekers. “Security officers are occasionally provocative and violent,” RTS said.

Oberholzer will investigate the allegations and internal processes and publish a public report. An internal audit into the affair is already underway, SEM said. The migration office said internal structures, the recruitment of security officers and their training would be closely examined.

“The SEM wants asylum seekers to be treated with respect. It is important to avoid as much as possible violent conflicts between applicants as well as between applicants and collaborators,” SEM said in the statement.

Reports of violence are not new. During monitoring visits in 2019 and 2020, the National Commission for the Prevention of Torture (NCPT) repeatedly found that conflict was part of everyday life in eight federal asylum centres – and that it sometimes escalated into violence.

Even though numbers of asylum seeker applications has dropped during the pandemic, asylum centres have complained of being crowded as they have been forced to introduce social distancing measures to prevent outbreaks of the coronavirus.