Tag: Switzerland

Swiss getting cold feet about taking more Syrians

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We’ve written several posts over the last few years (here) about how Switzerland is trying to save itself from being swamped by needy refugees, many from Muslim countries.   They did however agree to take a small number of Syrians over three years, but those numbers are now getting out of control.     (Be sure to see our previous post about the rich pretending to be refugees at Davos this week.)

Secretary of State John Kerry arrives in Switzerland for so-called ‘Peace talks’ on Syria, then immediately stirred anger.

Interesting timing that this story should be published just as ‘Peace talks’ take place in the country since these decisions were actually made late last year.

From Inter Press Service news:

LUCERNE, Switzerland , Jan 23 2014 (IPS) – Switzerland facilitated family reunification for Syrians in September. So far, more than 1,100 Syrian refugees have benefited from the programme, while thousands are waiting at Swiss embassies in the region, hoping for a similar chance. Surprised by these numbers, Switzerland put an end to the programme.

Several European countries responded to an appeal by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees  (UNHCR) last summer to admit Syrian refugees. Switzerland announced it would accept 500 “especially vulnerable refugees” over three years.

Further, the country that hosts about 2,000 citizens of Syrian origin pledged to open its borders for their relatives. By the end of November, Swiss embassies in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan had granted 1,600 Syrians a three-month entry visa.

At least 1,100 of these have already travelled to Switzerland. A further 5,000 Syrians have applied for appointments at Swiss embassies to file similar visa requests.

Either Swiss authorities were surprised by these numbers, or considered their humanitarian action short-lived. Already in early November, they introduced bureaucratic hurdles: Swiss-based Syrians who had invited their relatives now needed to meet certain financial requirements.

“Looking at the size of an average Syrian family, these requirements constitute a killer criteria,” said Beat Meiner, secretary-general of the Swiss Refugee Council (SFH). “Few of the Swiss-based Syrians have enough money to clear these hurdles.”

I think that is exactly why the Swiss don’t want more refugees—they bring poverty and a need for more social services.  Not to mention the cultural conflicts already happening.

Photo is here.

Syrians march and demand asylum in Switzerland

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It’s about the children.

Looks to me like the Syrian refugees who have taken to the streets in Bern demanding asylum are getting professional community organizing help in crafting their message.

Syrians: We have the right to live in Switzerland! Of course the photo is from Occupy.com!

We’ve reported before about the growing tension in Switzerland where the Swiss are world famous for holding on to their ‘Swiss-ness’ (Not a word I know!).  Here are two recent post (click here and here).

So it’s no surprise that, as this article (Truth out) reports, their marching went largely unnoticed by the Swiss public:

BERN, Switzerland — Due to Syria’s civil war and the refugee crisis it has produced, the political standoff between asylum-seekers in Switzerland and the government body tasked with deciding their status — the Bundesamt für Migration (BFM), or Federal Migration Office — has in the last week become a standoff in a very real sense.

Since September 9, Syrian refugees impatient with what in many cases has been the BFM’s years-long lack of response to their needs have been braving the autumnal chill in an improvised camp in front of the office’s main building in Bern. Eleven of the upwards of 100 demonstrators began a hunger strike on Saturday.

The asylum-seekers — many of whom have been in Switzerland since the onset of the Syrian revolution in 2011, or longer, and around 40 of whom are children — have resolved not to leave until their status is officially decided.

[….]

The march was headed by children from the camp, one of whom sat on his father’s shoulders and gleefully led chants, in German using a megaphone, like, “We love Switzerland but Switzerland doesn’t love us. ”The moving spectacle went almost unnoticed by locals as the march wound its way through quiet neighborhoods and empty parklands along the police-approved route, from the far-flung BFM towards the Bern city center.

Sounds like Helin went to the Barack Obama International School of Communist Community Organizing!

“These children want to go to school. If they could, they would go tomorrow,” intoned Helin, a young Syrian woman who has been in Switzerland for five years [before the Syrian civil war?—ed] and has what is known as a B-permit (non-permanent residence). She has been working as a translator and liaison for the activists. “Look at them, they have a life, they have rights,” she said of the children. “Give them a future.”

See Occupy.com (what else!) for the photo and more!

Swiss doing DNA tests on “refugees” to determine family relationships

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We, in the US, are supposed to be doing this too—DNA testing Somalis and others from certain countries to see if they are really related to the “family” member they are seeking to join. 

I doubt we are doing it much.

In 2008 the US State Department closed family reunification for years due to the widespread fraud discovered in the program.  It has only recently been reopened supposedly with the protection of some DNA testing.

In a follow-up to the widely read story we posted regarding new get-tough policies in Switzerland, here is news that some cantons in the country are requiring DNA testing to see if “refugees” are lying and claiming kinship where none exists.

From Press TV:

Certain Swiss Cantons are demanding systematic DNA tests on asylum-seekers who seek to be reunited with family members living in Switzerland.

Iris Rivas, head of migration services in the canton of Bern, said that the reason for DNA tests are that official papers from several countries are easily forged, Swiss newspaper Schweiz Am Sonntag reported Sunday.

“Identity papers or birth certificates must be considered as suspect” when presented by people seeking residence under the family reunification program, Rivas said.

The demand is also supported by the canton of Lucerne’s migration chief Alexander Lieb, who said, “Identity control in the case of family reunification is too lax.”

Under current Swiss law, DNA tests are allowed on a case-by-case basis when there is serious doubt that a claimant belongs to the same family.

Meanwhile, Switzerland has recently come under fire for its treatment of asylum seekers, including segregation and poor living conditions.

Police dismantled a protest camp this week at the Solothurn train station in the northwestern part of the country, where a group of ten asylum seekers protested against their living conditions in a subterranean bunker, describing it as “unworthy of a human being.”

The decision to end the rally was taken after police feared the demonstrators would be attacked by local residents who were outraged by the protest.

Swiss asylum-seeker controversy brings world-wide attention

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is an update of a story we posted last week about how some towns in Switzerland with detention facilities nearby, fearing crime, are restricting the movement of the ‘asylum-seekers’ from mostly Muslim countries.

This is from AFP and posted at Fox News, but the story is being reported in a whole host of media outlets.

Africans arriving in Switzerland (via Malta!) in 2012

Swiss citizen:  If they don’t like our laws they can go somewhere else or back to the country they came from!

Switzerland is one of the countries in Europe that welcomes the most asylum seekers in proportion to its population, with some 48,000 people currently in the process of applying for asylum in the small Alpine nation, including 28,631 who arrived in 2012 — the highest number since 1999.   [Welcomes!  Reporters world-wide have fallen for their lingo!—-ed]

Amid the recent spike in refugees, Switzerland has been rushing to open a slew of temporary asylum centres.

But the Swiss public, which in June overwhelmingly voted to tighten the country’s asylum laws, often resist the creation of such centres in their neighbourhoods.   [Where have we heard this before?  Oh yeh!  Germany!—ed]

Szoelloesy acknowledged that four of the 10 communities asked to host new centres since last year had been granted the right to set up “sensitive areas”, like Bremgarten, to help avoid “bad feelings” towards the asylum seekers.

Don’t like it here?  Leave!

“To tell you the truth, I think that if they are not satisfied with the laws in the country that is housing them they would be better off returning to their countries or going elsewhere,” young Solothurn local Maria told RTS.

Read the whole story.  The “human rights” cabal is up in arms and some Turks are demonstrating.

Photo is from this story about Switzerland taking 19 of the illegal aliens who arrived on Malta.  The US has taken at least 1,300 of Malta’s illegal migrants over the last few years.   Notice in this story that the presence of the Africans was kept from the public for months.

Switzerland bans asylum seekers from some public places

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Switzerland has started to house asylum seekers in underground bunkers on remote mountains. Credit: Ray Smith/IPS.

Switzerland has reached refugee overload and Swiss citizens are angry.   Human rights activists call them “racists” (so what else is new!) for wanting to restrict movement of asylum seekers.

From BBC:

Some Swiss towns plan to keep asylum-seekers away from public places such as swimming pools, playing fields and libraries, in a move human rights groups say is racist.

The curbs are aimed at preventing tensions with residents, officials say.

Asylum-seekers are to be housed in special centres, mainly former army barracks, and the first one has opened in the town of Bremgarten.

Switzerland’s share of asylum-seekers is well above the European average.

Asylum laws were tightened in June.

The BBC’s Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the controversy reflects growing voter unease at the number of asylum-seekers in Switzerland – per head of population, among the highest in Europe.

Currently about 48,000 people are seeking asylum in Switzerland.

[…..]

Roman Staub, mayor of the town of Menzingen, said asylum-seekers should be banned from “sensitive areas” such as the vicinity of a school. “This is certainly a very difficult area, because here asylum-seekers could meet our schoolchildren – young girls or young boys,” he said.

In Bremgarten, a church will also be off-limits to asylum-seekers.

Human rights groups are outraged, calling the measures racist….

Say good-bye to Europe.  New readers may want to peruse our previous 419 posts on Europe, here.

Photo and caption is from this article back in May.