Asylum system risks collapsing, warns Association of Swiss Municipalities – rts.ch

A recent survey shows that 31% of municipalities cite the supervision of asylum seekers as one of their main problems, notes Claudia Kratochvil in an interview broadcast on Sunday by the NZZ am Sonntag. Many of them no longer know where to house asylum seekers, she adds, emphasizing that the use of underground civil protection shelters is no longer an exception, but a common practice.

The director of the ACS also notes that the population’s acceptance of refugees is declining and that the number of host families has sharply decreased. In addition, “it is very difficult to find qualified people to supervise refugees.”

Integration package

The savings planned by the Federal Council are also a problem, notes Claudia Kratochvil. The manager points in particular to the reduction in the integration package of half a billion francs per year which is “not manageable” and will have massive repercussions on the budgets of municipalities and cantons.

The municipalities are already very busy with the 22,000 pending asylum applications, she adds. These people “are in a queue and blocking places that are urgently needed”. Claudia Kratochvil calls on the Confederation to quickly reduce the backlog of cases and examine the applications in federal asylum centers.

Despite this gloomy picture, the director of the ACS sees progress in the asylum system in Switzerland. The municipalities are now more involved in the “overall asylum strategy” and a national summit on asylum is planned for the fall in order to create more efficiency between the Confederation, the cantons and the municipalities, notes she said.

ats/dk