UN sees need for improvement in federal asylum centers
Published: Monday, Nov 6th 2023, 14:07
Updated At: Tuesday, Nov 7th 2023, 00:54
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The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR sees improvements in the accommodation of asylum seekers in Switzerland. However, there are still significant gaps in the federal asylum centers, including in the care of people with special needs and in the prevention of violence, the UNHCR announced on Monday.
After visiting twelve federal asylum centers in 2021 and 2022 in all asylum regions of Switzerland and interviewing 269 asylum seekers and 218 people working in the federal asylum centers, the UNHCR made several recommendations. The UN organization also aimed to evaluate the new asylum system that was introduced in 2019.
Even though the number of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum has increased, the quality of care and continued school attendance must be ensured, the UNHCR demanded. There was also a lack of a mechanism to systematically identify special needs and staff in federal asylum centers should be made more aware of this.
According to the UNHCR, there is also a lack of information for asylum seekers, anonymous complaints mechanisms, low-threshold psychological and psychosocial support services, addiction prevention programs and programs for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.
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