Instrumentalizing the issue of asylum “does nothing for anyone”, said Beat Jans in the press on Saturday. In European comparison, Switzerland is doing well and is even clearly ahead on several issues, adds the federal councilor.
“Asylum figures (in Switzerland) are falling: less than 40% of requests in September year-on-year. As well as pending cases: less than 25% in one year. Despite this, the number of returns continues to increase “increase”, lists the head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP) in an interview broadcast on Saturday by the newspapers of the Tamedia press group.
The introduction of a 24-hour procedure works and there are far fewer incidents in asylum centers, continues the Federal Councilor. The security situation in the federal centers for asylum seekers in Boudry (NE) and Chiasso (TI) “has improved”, underlines the Basel socialist. He further notes that the number of border arrests has fallen by half compared to last year.
Layoffs planned at the federal center in Boudry
A sign of the drop in the number of asylum requests, 20 of the 140 employees at the Boudry federal center will be dismissed, the Neuchâtel newspaper Arcinfo reported on Saturday. The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) wants to “reduce the support staff for unaccompanied minor asylum seekers throughout Switzerland”, specifies Samuel Wyss, spokesperson for the SEM.
“A significant drop in the number of unaccompanied minors housed in federal asylum centers has been observed since spring 2024,” he adds. A total of 120 full-time equivalent jobs will be cut across Switzerland. In French-speaking Switzerland, 34 full-time equivalents subcontracted to the ORS company will be eliminated.
Vincenzo Mascioli, the “man for the job”
The Tamedia newspapers also question Beat Jans on the outsourcing of asylum procedures to Albania implemented by Italy. This mechanism gives rise to complex legal questions, notes the federal advisor. An Italian court has also invalidated the detention in Albanian centers of the first 12 asylum seekers that Rome transferred there this week.
>> To find out more: Italian court invalidates detention of first migrants transferred to Albania
The head of the DFJP rejects criticism of the choice of the new director of the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). Vincenzo Mascioli has the experience to take on this challenge, explains Beat Jans: “I am convinced that he is the man for the job.”
The appointment on Wednesday of this 54-year-old from Zurich, current vice-director of the SEM, was received coldly by the UDC and the PLR. “Only the facts interest me,” sweeps away the socialist federal councilor. “The population, on the left and the right, is asking us to find solutions that work.”
>> Rouven Gueissaz’s analysis of the appointment of Vincenzo Mascioli as head of the SEM:
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