EU Referendum


Switzerland: shouting the odds on migration


23/01/2015



000a swiss-023 poster.jpg

Although a year out of date, the Swiss Federal Statistics Office has just issued this press release with figures for 2013.

With the headline, "one third of the population has a migration background", it tells us that 2.4 million of the 6.8 million people aged 15 or more living in Switzerland had a migration background. Four-fifths of them were born abroad; the remaining fifth were born in Switzerland but to parents who were born abroad. Over a third (35 percent) held a Swiss passport.

This information, though, is different from the standard format, which tells us that in 2013, 1,937,447 foreign citizens lived in Switzerland (23.8 percent of the permanent resident population), with almost two-thirds (65.9 percent) coming from an EU28 or EFTA country.

In this current press release, we are given the proportion including those holding Swiss passports, which adds ten percent to the previously posted figure, thus representing a more comprehensive figure than standard compilation of first generation immigrants.

A more up-to-date figure is the number of new asylum seekers registered in Switzerland. Last year (2014) was 23,765, an increase of 11 percent on the 2013 figure. The largest nationality group by far were Eritreans, whose numbers more than doubled (+170 percent) to 6,923.

The Swiss increase, we are told, was modest in comparison to the overall figures for Europe, where the number of registered asylum seekers in 2014 reached 600,000, an increase of 35 percent on 2013.

The number of Syrians who made it to Switzerland to request asylum doubled last year to 3,819 people. The most common route to the European mainland for Syrian and Eritrean refugees is by sea to Italy.

In accordance with EU law, Italy is supposed to process these refugees on the spot, but it has a long history of "passing the buck", and allowing migrants to travel to other countries, where they then seek to register as asylum seekers.

This affects the UK as much as Switzerland, and we should be voluble in our insistence that the "colleagues" obey the laws they have signed up to. Needless to say, though, our timorous wee beasties are silent on this issue, which leaves Swiss Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga to do the honours, calling on Italy to comply with its obligations under the Dublin Regulation and register asylum seekers.

By way of a quid pro quo, she also signalled Switzerland's willingness to help share the asylum burden but first, she says, "Italy must first fulfil its obligations".

Sommaruga was speaking ahead of a meeting with EU interior ministers in Luxembourg, in which the parties agreed on a common strategy to deal with "exceptional situations" relating to refugees, such as the Italian case, in order to ensure the functioning of the Dublin Regulation.

The Dublin Regulation stipulates that the first EU Member State an asylum seeker enters is responsible for that individual's asylum process. Asylum seekers who travel to another country and reapply for asylum can be sent back to the country where they first entered.

Switzerland sent a letter to Brussels in mid-September calling for Italy to fulfil its obligations under the Dublin Regulation and record all asylum seekers arriving on its territory. Previously, France, Germany, Poland and even Britain have complained to the European Commission about Italy's inaction.

But the last word is left to Sommaruga. The problem cannot be resolved unless everyone contributes, she says. She might have added: "and obeys the law". Even Iceland seems to manage this, and if Switzerland is shouting the odds, it is bizarre that our voice should be so muted.