An idea put forward by the FDP/PLR to have certain rejected asylum seekers sent to a country other than the one they came from found support in a parliamentary commission this week, reported SRF. The comission voted 14 to 11 in favour of the idea.
Normally, asylum seekers who have their applications rejected are returned to their home country. However, the nation of Eritrea will not accept its own citizens back unless they return voluntarily, leaving open the question of where to send those unwilling to return.
The idea put forward by the FDP/PLR would be to arrange to have them sent to a third nation such as Rwanda. This week, the UK parliament passed a bill allowing anyone arriving illegally in the nation from a safe country to be flown to Rwanda.
However, some Swiss politicians see little merit in the idea. Balthasar Glättli from the Green Party is convinced it is doomed to failure. As he sees it, the problem is Eritrea does not take back people from any state unless they return voluntarily. Flying them to an intermediary country does not change this. Such a plan could also run into legal difficulties. The UK scheme was initially rejected by the Supreme Court. Switzerland would also risk being condemned by the European Court of Human Rights should it create such a scheme.
Supporters however think such a system might act as a deterent in much the same way as supporters of the UK’s Rwanda plan claim.
A similar initiative failed in Switzerland in 2003. Federal Councilor Ruth Metzler tried to establish a transit agreement with Senegal allowing the transfer of rejected African asylum seekers from Switzerland to Senegal. But Senegal withdrew from the agreement.
Some have suggested that the low-odds proposal is being used as a platform to signal that certain Swiss parties and politicians want a stricter asylum policy.
More on this:
SRF article (in German)
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