Asylum returns from Switzerland rose by a fifth in 2023

The number of rejected asylum seekers who left Switzerland last year rose significantly, and not just because of the overall rise in asylum applications, migration authorities have said. Anyone who receives neither a positive decision nor a temporary admission status at the end of their asylum procedure must leave the country voluntarily or be forced to do so. Reto Kormann from the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) says this “return” policy mainly affects people from countries from which many asylum applications come, but where the prospect of being granted asylum in Switzerland is very low. “This includes Algeria, for example, where [last year] we were able to repatriate almost 500 people who had been turned away,” Kormann told Swiss public radio, SRF, on Tuesday. Turkey and Georgia are also at the forefront, said Kormann. + More about the Swiss asylum system and how it works Years of development Asylum seekers from the Maghreb, most of them young men who have fled for ...