Three times as many repatriations by special flight than in the previous year
Published: Sunday, Mar 24th 2024, 13:01
Retour au fil d'actualité
In 2023, Switzerland repatriated three times as many people by special flight than in the previous year. A total of 339 asylum seekers were taken out of the country on 49 flights. The majority of the special flights headed for EU countries.
These were repatriations under the Dublin asylum agreement, the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) confirmed in response to an inquiry from the Keystone-SDA news agency, as reported by the Sonntagszeitung newspaper. The fact that these flights have increased has had a positive effect on costs. In 2022, expenditure per person on a special flight amounted to an average of CHF 13,000. Last year, the figure was CHF 7,300.
Outside of Europe, the special flights also went to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and South America, the newspaper wrote. Last year, there were 24 repatriations by special flight to African countries. Last year saw the first special deportation flights to Algeria and Iraq. The SEM wrote in February that many years of development work and confidence-building had paid off here.
The number of 339 repatriations by special flight is only just below the record of 345 repatriations in 2016, the report continued. In 2022, 28 flights with 124 people took place. This shows a significant increase in repatriations.
Asylum seekers who receive a negative decision have the option of leaving Switzerland voluntarily. In return, they receive at least CHF 1,000 as return assistance. A special flight is only used if the person concerned decides against voluntary return and does not want to leave on a scheduled flight.
In total, 5742 people left Switzerland voluntarily or were forced to do so last year. This corresponds to an increase of 19 percent compared to 2022.
©Keystone/SDA
French 
English 
German 
Spanish 
Arabic