Federal Council and Council of States for tightening

For Beat Jans, it has become routine: The Minister of Asylum explains what makes our country better in asylum policy than other countries – for example faster procedures and more deportations. Switzerland has twice as many returns as before the Russian attack on Ukraine, said the SP politician on Monday in the Council of States. A number of asylum advantages were made in the small chamber.

At the same time, Janan tried to ward off the advances in which he sees a violation of the constitution and international law. Which did not always succeed. The Council of States, for example, confirmed a decision already made in the spring session, according to which persons condemned by crime are excluded from the asylum procedure. Jans rejected this with reference to the non-refoulement principle. It says that nobody can be traced back to a country in which torture and inhumane treatment threaten him.

A permanent topic is how to deal with multiple criminal asylum seekers with a negative decision. They often come back after a crime, but then break down somewhere again or steal something from a car. This petty crime also affects the reputation of asylum seekers who behave correctly.

Now politics wants to remedy the situation. And in many points, Jan and the Council of States agreed yesterday. Without discussion and in accordance with the Federal Council, for example, two motions with a similar push by Tiana Angelina Moser (GLP/ZH) and Petra Gössi (FDP/SZ) were assumed. The two politicians want to ensure that migrants who are not in need of protection and repeatedly delinquent people can be released more easily and more consistently deported.

Findings should flow into the action plan

They are goals that the Federal Council shares. In April, he announced that the federal and cantons use a task force against intensive offenders and check the need for the forced measures. The plan: the federal and cantons report particularly striking people to the Taskforce. Using case management, this ensures that all coercive measures such as the arrangement of administrative caution are exploited.

This presupposes that the migration and law enforcement authorities work closely together. The knowledge gained should flow into an action plan. This is to be presented at an asylum conference next year, in which representatives of the federal government, cantons and communities take part. A working group also checks whether law must be changed for a better execution.

The Federal Council and the Council of States do not agree everywhere, which improves the gefinance enforcement. The small chamber agreed with 30 to 10 votes of a motion of the FDP, which demands that the federal government make it easier for the cantons to make the deportations – for example, by dismantling obstacles such as unfavorable departure times.

Jan had doubted the feasibility of the measure. « In the case of line flights, we have to follow the commercial airplans, and in the special flights we have to take into account the specifications of the target states. » But Gössi successfully warned that there must now be more about dealing. The dissatisfaction in the population is growing.

Meanwhile, the number of asylum applications is in the fall. By the end of April, 7403 people asked for protection. Compared to the previous year’s period, this corresponds to a decline of around 25 percent. Most protection seekers come from Afghanistan.

The State Secretariat for Migration in 2025 expects me around 24,000 new asylum seekers, around 4,000 fewer than in the previous year. The SEM of 17,000 protection seekers from Ukraine continues. There are currently 10,250 searches pending. At the beginning of the year, the number of open pendants was 12,000.