Applications for asylum by Ukrainian citizens in Switzerland will be reviewed taking into account new circumstances
Savings on refugees
The current mechanism provides for a one-time payment of 6,000 francs per person, which the Confederation transfers to the cantonal authorities. As NashaGazeta.ch notes, this amount is intended to cover the procedural costs of temporary accommodation for rejected asylum seekers. It should be noted that in not all cases does the amount of federal compensation cover the cantons' expenses.
According to the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), in 2014, 10,744 people received support under this project, 22% fewer than the previous year. This trend has been observed for the first time since 2008, despite the fact that in 2014, candidates filing multiple asylum applications (which is prohibited by law) joined the category of emergency aid recipients.
The State Secretariat for Migration believes this is due to the acceleration of the processing procedure for applications that are doomed to fail. Lately, such applications have been given priority, leading to an increase in the number of refusals in 2012-2013 and, consequently, a rise in requests for emergency aid. In 2014, it was the turn of complex cases, which usually end with granting permanent or temporary refugee status, entitling them to social assistance.
Switzerland took care of each unrecognized refugee for an average of 129 days per year, with the daily cost of accommodation being 53 francs for those who were refused and 49 francs for multiple applicants. In total, in 2014, the Confederation's financial contribution to emergency aid reached 51.6 million francs, while the cantons spent a total of about 73.7 million francs, 7% less than the previous year.
Over the last 7 years, the cantons spent 366 million francs on emergency aid, while receiving 433 million francs in compensation from the Confederation. The resulting difference was used to create a reserve for emergency aid in cases of refusals that have not yet taken effect.
As in the previous year, the largest group of emergency aid recipients were from Nigeria, accounting for 10.1% (in 2013 – 15%). They are followed by asylum seekers from Algeria (5.7%), Tunisia (5.4%), Kosovo (4.6%), Morocco (4.6%), and others. However, the most numerous category was persons whose nationality could not be determined.
The detailed statistics also provide information on the average cost of stay for people from different countries, leaders in refusals received, longest periods of assistance, and other data. For example, in the group with the highest percentage of refusals in processing their cases, candidates from Ukraine ranked second after Syrians.
Chance for refugees from Ukraine
Recall that due to the military conflict in mid-2014, Switzerland removed Ukraine from the list of so-called 'safe countries,' whose citizens face greater difficulty in obtaining refugee status. The Federal Administration announced that due to the unstable political situation and the critical situation in certain regions of the country, on June 20, the Confederation government decided to remove Ukraine from the category it had been in since 2007.
Asylum applications filed by Ukrainian citizens will be reviewed taking into account the new circumstances. The decision was made based on an assessment of the situation presented by the Federal Migration Service (ODM) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Confederation (DFAE).