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Swiss child protection cases saw significant rise last year

Kesb cases have increased in 2023
Kesb cases have increased in 2023 Keystone-SDA

Switzerland's child and adult protection agency registered 6.5% more cases involving children in 2023 than in 2022, the highest ever annual increase.

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The main reason for the increase was more guardianships for unaccompanied minor asylum seekers, which must be ordered by law, the Conference for Child and Adult Protection (Kokes) wrote in a press release on Thursday.

Overall, the child and adult protection authorities (Kesb) recorded an increase in cases of around 3.5% of total cases. A total of 154,981 people were granted a protective measure (a rise of 5,516 people). Two thirds of the measures were for adults. One third involved children.

According to Kokes, there were more court proceedings in which parents had potentially conflicting interests. The authority received more reports of children at risk, including domestic violence or drug problems among parents.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga

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