In 2023, Switzerland carried out 3720 repatriations
Published: Sunday, Oct 13th 2024, 12:10
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In 2023, 3720 people were returned from Switzerland to their home country, a third country or a Dublin state. In total, the State Secretariat for Migration recorded 40,141 departures, returns or other departures last year.
The largest category comprises 13,001 people who left the country in a controlled and independent manner, according to the 2023 asylum statistics from the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). In addition, 11,926 people left uncontrolled and 11,494 people belonged to the "other departures" category.
The remainder was made up as follows: 1874 people were returned to their home country, 1686 to a Dublin country and 160 to a third country. The SEM defines returns as the "forced execution" of expulsions in the area of asylum and foreigners, expulsions and expulsions from the country, as can be read on the federal authority's website.
339 repatriations by special flight
If the persons refused to leave Switzerland, coercive measures could be used. Four different levels of enforcement are provided for repatriations, ranging from police escort to the plane (level 1) to police escort on a special flight (level 4), as can be seen on the SEM website.
The latter was applied to 339 asylum seekers in 2023, as the SEM said in March. The people were taken out of the country on 49 flights. A large proportion of the special flights were destined for EU countries as part of the Dublin Agreement.
People go into hiding
According to the asylum statistics, the 11,926 people in the "uncontrolled departures" category would, for example, return to their home country or travel on to a third country without deregistering. There were also people who did not leave Switzerland and went into hiding.
The term "other departures" in the statistics includes people who returned to the asylum process due to a second or reconsideration application. Administrative write-offs such as multiple registrations or double applications and deaths are also affected.
©Keystone/SDA
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