Author
The Swiss Refugee Council is not aware of any report of pushbacks in 2023.
Border monitoring
There is no border monitoring system in place in Switzerland.
Legal access to the territory
Third country nationals can apply for a humanitarian visa. in December 2021 due to the restrictive practice in Switzerland.[1] In 2023, out of 1137 applications only 100 were accepted. The most relevant countries in terms of applications were Afghanistan (640 applications, 76 accepted), Syria (172 applications, 2 accepted) and Iran (108 applications, 0 accepted). Further humanitarian visas were given to 5 persons from Eritrea, 10 from Myanmar, 6 from Belarus and 1 person from Türkiye.[2]
The Swiss government offers around 800 places for resettlement per year. In view of improving planning, the Federal Council intends to adopt a resettlement programme every two years within the range of 1,500 to 2,000 refugees. On 19 May 2021, the Federal Council approved the admission of up to 1,600 particularly vulnerable refugees for 2022/2023.[3] As of December 2022, the Swiss government has announced a temporary halt to the resettlement program. The government claimed that there was insufficient capacity to accept more persons under this scheme.[4] In 2023, 376 persons entered Switzerland under the Resettlement programme, most of them from Afghanistan (210), followed by Syria (158), Sudan (4), Iran (2) and Somalia (2).[5]
Switzerland participated in 2015 and 2016 on a voluntary basis in the EU relocation programmes (relocation from Greece and Italy). Since then, Switzerland has not participated in relocation and neglected any such request in 2023 and 2024.[6]
Evacuations from Afghanistan 2021: At the end of August 2021, Switzerland declared its immediate priority was to evacuate and welcome local staff from its temporarily closed Kabul cooperation office, and their immediate families.[7] Switzerland evacuated its local staff from the Swiss Development Cooperation Office (SDC) in Kabul, which was closed on 13 August 2021 following the Taliban takeover. As a result, 219 SDC staff were evacuated, including 132 local staff and their families. These 132 people were counted towards Switzerland’s resettlement quota.[8] After that, Switzerland ended its evacuation scheme and did not attempt any further evacuations, a decision that was criticised by civil society.
[1] Information on the application for a humanitarian visa can still be found on their homepage, available at: https://bit.ly/3olUhGO.
[2] Data provided by the SEM, 21 March 2024.
[3] Communication of the SEM in English available at: https://bit.ly/3uiTCK5.
[4] See Infomigrants, Switzerland freezes admission of resettlement refugees, 20 December 2022, https://bit.ly/3YUvHxm.
[5] Data provided by the SEM, 21 March 2024.
[6] Information provided by the SEM, 1 May 2023.
[7] See swissinfo.ch, Switzerland divided on taking Afghan refugees, 26 August 2021, available in English at: https://bit.ly/3JuO3zE.
[8] Information shared by Swiss Refugee Council, November 2021, see also ECRE, Afghans seeking protection in Europe, December 2021, available in English at: https://bit.ly/3wLVMC0, 19.