Swiss authorities want to improve asylum procedures

Swiss Justice Minister Beat Jans. Keystone-SDA

The country’s asylum system, restructured six years ago, has proved its worth, authorities said on Friday. However, improvements are necessary, particularly in terms of speeding up procedures, they added.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

At a conference on Friday, representatives from the three levels of government in Switzerland (federal, cantonal, and municipal), and including Justice Minister Beat Jans, noted that various adjustments were needed. According to a press release by Jans’ ministry, the system is reaching its limits and becoming less efficient, particularly at times of pressure.

+ Asylum in Switzerland: the numbers at a glance

To this end, the conference thus adopted the Asylum Strategy 2027. With regard to asylum procedures, the number of pending cases must be reduced rapidly, they agreed. Some are taking longer than expected, which is having an impact on cantons and municipalities. A preliminary procedure must be examined.

The system also needs to be more resilient in order to better absorb fluctuations in terms of numbers. Adjustments also need to be made in terms of security.

Translated from French by DeepL/dos

How we work 

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at [e-mail]