Federal Council wants to draw up report on asylum procedures in third countries
Published: Thursday, Feb 15th 2024, 15:00
Updated At: Thursday, Feb 15th 2024, 15:00
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The Federal Council wants to draw up a report on the subject of asylum procedures and expulsions to third countries. In its words, an assessment of the discussions at European level is required. The compatibility with Swiss law and international obligations should be examined.
This can be seen in the response published on Thursday by the federal government to a postulate from FDP member of the Council of States Andrea Caroni (AR). The Federal Council was previously of the opinion that asylum procedures abroad were not feasible for both legal and practical reasons.
EU asylum reform
The background to the Federal Council's deliberations is the EU asylum reform. This project envisages asylum procedures at the external borders of the Schengen area.
Caroni justified his postulate with the fact that more and more countries and the EU were working on reforms to carry out asylum procedures closer to the countries of origin of the refugees. The report should also address the deportation of rejected refugees to third countries.
The Council of States will once again discuss the deportation of Eritreans with rejected asylum applications to a third country in the spring. It has before it a motion by Petra Gössi (FDP/SZ) calling for a corresponding transit agreement to be concluded. The Federal Council would have to find a suitable third country.
The model should be a transit agreement negotiated with Senegal around twenty years ago, which was never in force. The Federal Council opposes the demand. According to its explanations, the agreement with Senegal would have allowed transit for a maximum of 72 hours.
Better cooperation with Eritrea
During this time, identification and the procurement of a travel document should have been carried out locally at the consular representation of the home country. If the onward journey to the home country could not be organized, Switzerland would have been obliged to take back the people in transit.
According to the Federal Council, cooperation with Eritrea has improved and the number of Eritreans obliged to leave the country has decreased slightly. While 309 people were still in this situation by the end of 2022, the figure had fallen to 278 by the end of 2023. There are also fewer asylum applications from Eritrea, according to the Federal Council. It wants to continue to focus on cooperation with the countries of origin.
The Council of States already adopted a similar proposal last June. However, the National Council rejected it by a narrow majority last December.
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