24-hour procedure – 40 percent fewer asylum applications – that’s behind the numbers – News

Asylum requests from the Maghreb states and Libya fell by around 40 percent across Switzerland in the first half of the year. According to SEM, the newly introduced 24-hour procedure for hopeless asylum applications is the reason for this. Can the decline be explained by this alone?

“We are very satisfied. The results are what we hoped for,” says Daniel Bach, Head of Communications at SEM, about the numbers. The new procedure is about asylum seekers who really have no prospect of protection and are often only there at the weekend and disappear again.

The 24-hour procedure is intended to ensure that people who have to leave Switzerland again in the vast majority of cases do not place unnecessary strain on the structures, says the SEM. The recognition rate for applications from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya is only one percent.

Significant decline in Zurich

The procedure was introduced in the Federal Asylum Center in Zurich (BAZ) in November 2023, and a total of 413 applications were submitted. These fast-track procedures have been in place throughout Switzerland since the end of April 2024.

Most asylum applications from these countries are processed in the BAZ. According to SEM, there has been a decline of 62 percent since November 2023. Across all federal asylum centers, asylum applications from the three Maghreb states and Libya fell by 40 percent.

But a comparison with Germany shows that there, too, the number of applications fell significantly – even without a new procedure. During the same period, the number of refugees from the Maghreb and Libya has been declining, with asylum seekers down 25 percent in April compared to November. So does the cause of the decline lie somewhere else?

Decline also in Germany – without a new procedure

When asked, the SEM specified: “Of course, several factors play a role here. But you have to remember that the number of asylum seekers from North African countries usually increases in the winter months, and that has always been the case in recent years. This year it has declined sharply and we assume that the effect is mainly due to these 24-hour procedures,” says Bach.

The German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser attributes the general decline in refugee numbers in Germany to her own measures: namely the controversial increased border controls. She explained this during her last visit to Switzerland: “We have seen a massive decline in irregular migration in Germany since the introduction of border controls. We have a decline of 20 percent.”

And so it turns out: Whether in Germany or Switzerland, those in power are happy to claim that the falling numbers in the asylum sector are a very personal success of their respective measures.