Number of staff and nature of the first instance authority

Author

Swiss Refugee Council Visit Website

The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) is responsible for examining applications for international protection and competent to take decisions at first instance. It falls under the responsibility of the Federal Department of Justice and Police. The guidelines and circulars of the SEM relating to the asylum procedure are publicly accessible and can be consulted online.^[1]

The SEM employs 1,521 officials, who work not only on asylum but also other areas in the field of migration such as immigration or integration. Out of them, 853 officials worked in the Asylum Department as of December 2023. 23 officials work in the COI department, 7 officials in the LINGUA department. The number of caseworkers examining applications for international protection in the six asylum regions is 318. In the headquarters in Bern, 65 officials work in the field of asylum procedures, 22 officials in the field of the Dublin regulation. Every single asylum decision is double checked by the head of unit or their deputy. There is also a Quality Management team at the main offices in Bern, but they only check a representative selection of decisions in order to improve the processes and contents of decisions, and the results of such monitoring are not public.

[1] SEM, Guidelines and circulars, available in French (and German and Italian) at: https://bit.ly/2lRH7nn. A Handbook on Asylum and Return for SEM employees providing useful information on Swiss law and practice is also available online in French (and German) at: https://bit.ly/2J0U22t.