Asylum applications in Switzerland expected to drop in 2026

Federal government again expects fewer asylum applications in 2026 Keystone-SDA

The number of asylum applications in Switzerland in 2025 fell by around 7% compared to 2024. The government also expects fewer asylum applications in the current year.

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The Swiss authorities registered 25,781 asylum applications last year, according to provisional figures. This was 7.1% fewer than in 2024. Some 4,820 cases were secondary applications. These relate to births, family reunifications and multiple applications.

For the current year, the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) expects fewer new asylum applications than in 2025. In the most likely scenario, 25,000 are likely to be received, it wrote on Monday. Last year, most asylum applications were submitted by people from Afghanistan, Eritrea and Turkey.

Applications for S protection status – which is granted to refugees from Ukraine – were received from 12,897 people. Here, too, the numbers were down: around 22% fewer S status applications were received than in 2024. The SEM expects 12,000 applications in 2026.

Adapted from German by AI/ts

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