Swiss Abroad

Swiss diplomat makes high-level visit to Iraq

This content was published on Apr 22, 2016 Rossier travelled to Iraq from April 19 to 22 to intensify contacts with the federal authorities in Baghdad and the Kurdish authorities in Erbil, the foreign ministry said on Friday. There he was briefed on the country’s fight against the Islamic State and the regional situation. He also visited Swiss humanitarian aid projects, while identifying…

Swiss Politics

Swiss revealed to be a spiritual nation

This content was published on Apr 22, 2016 More than 20% of the population say that they do not have a religion, but only 12% say they are atheists. These are some of the main conclusions of the religions part of the language, religion and culture survey 2014 conducted by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), which was published on FridayExternal link. A majority…

Swiss Politics

Data sharing, protection are border security priorities

This content was published on Apr 21, 2016 Implementation of joint asylum measures were also on the agenda. At the main council meeting, ministers spoke of possible options to ensure that all states use existing information systems more effectively at the European and international levels. A first discussion presented by the European Commission focused on “smart borders” – a project intended to reinforce…

Swiss Politics

Army can be called on to control asylum seeker influx

This content was published on Apr 20, 2016 The army could be quickly called in to support the civil services in the case of an emergency asylum situation in Switzerland.

Swiss Politics

Swiss government opposes more cabinet members

This content was published on Apr 20, 2016 The committee has suggested increasing the cabinet by a further two members in order to better reflect Switzerland’s varied cultural and linguistic landscape. While the current cabinet welcomed the motives behind the proposal, it said on Wednesday that this was adequately covered by the present arrangement. Furthermore, increasing the number of ministers would increase the…

Swiss Politics

Switzerland makes strides in press freedom ranking

This content was published on Apr 20, 2016 That puts Switzerland among the countries that made the most progress over the past year, according to the annual survey. Reporters Without Borders attributes Switzerland’s jump in the rankings to worse results from other countries such as Germany, Canada or the Czech Republic. In addition, there was a lack of difficult media cases in the…

Swiss Politics

Citizenship put on hold for ‘no-handshake’ Muslim boys

This content was published on Apr 18, 2016 A spokesperson for the local security authorities said that the office for migration in canton Basel Country would be speaking to family members individually, and that it was not unusual for an application to be suspended while additional information was gathered. The spokesperson said that the interview would be open-ended, and that the family’s immigration…

Opinion

Swiss Politics

How the curse of the quorum poisoned democracy

This content was published on Apr 18, 2016 Over the last 20 years, Italians have been able to decide directly on 31 nationwide laws. But in 27 cases, including the recent referendum on oil drilling, their votes were simply invalidated by the undemocratic application of a quorum.

Swiss Politics

Justice minister defends asylum reforms as EU leader takes interest

This content was published on Apr 17, 2016 Following his tour of a new asylum facility in Zurich on Friday, Jean Asselborn, the Foreign Minister of Luxembourg and a representative of the Council of the European Union, said that “maybe this unique system could be implemented in the rest of Europe based on the initiative taken here in Zurich”, should the 28-member EU…

Swiss Politics

Asylum requests decline, but authorities brace for more

This content was published on Apr 14, 2016 Asylum requests in Switzerland drastically declined 45% in the first quarter of this year as the EU tightens its borders.

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