Swiss government proposes restrictions on Ukrainian refugees

Federal Council proposes restrictions on S status Keystone-SDA

Only those whose life and limb are at risk in Ukraine and who flee to Switzerland are to be granted special S status in future. The remaining Ukrainian refugees should apply for asylum. This is what the government is proposing.

With this restriction, the governing Federal Council wants to implement a request from Parliament. In future, the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) will differentiate between applicants from a safe or unsafe region of Ukraine when granting the special S protection status.

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Clarifications to this effect are currently underway, according to the Federal Council’s press release. According to current estimates, there is no intensive fighting in several regions in the west of the country that are controlled by Ukraine.

Anyone fleeing to Switzerland from these regions will therefore only be granted S status in exceptional cases. Those who receive this status do not have to go through an asylum procedure. They can take up employment, send their children to school and allow family members to join them in Switzerland.

Refugees from Ukraine who are not granted S status have the option of applying for asylum in Switzerland. On Wednesday, the Federal Council sent this proposal out for consultation. It wants to obtain the opinion of the cantons and that of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It also wants to coordinate with the EU. In the course of a possible extension of S status next autumn, it intends to amend the provisions accordingly.

Adapted from German by DeepL/ac

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