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The discussion in the Council of States today was not long, the arguments are clear and everyone is familiar with them. And so the latest compromise proposal for container villages on army grounds was rejected.
For a majority of the Council of States, there are enough civil defense facilities where asylum seekers are to be accommodated. The cantons opposed this. They argued that they needed the places themselves as reserves.
There is now a risk that there will be too few accommodations in autumn and that Switzerland will have to look for accommodation in crisis mode. In the run-up, the cantons (in vain) pleaded with the Council of States for a yes.
Council of States slows down Baume-Schneider
The State Secretariat for Migration now says they would examine whether and how they could still take over civil protection systems in the cantons. In addition, one would also look for solutions with the army. Only: Even here, the SEM cannot take over arbitrarily.
During the debate in the National Council, for example, the argument was put forward that if asylum seekers were accommodated on army premises, the army would no longer be able to train as many recruits as planned.
The container villages on army bases are one of the first major projects of the new SP Federal Councilor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider. She was a member of the Council of States herself a short time ago, but the Council of States has now put the brakes on her project.
Early autumn – peak of the wave of refugees and the election campaign
The SEM calculates scenarios, so in the most likely scenario, around 27,000 asylum seekers will come to Switzerland this year, in the “high” scenario there are 35,000. However, these are not spread out over the year, the SEM expects the peak in early autumn, with 3000 to 4000 applications per month.
However, early autumn is also the peak phase of the election campaign for the national elections this autumn. Because the Council of States has now said no to the container villages on army grounds, there will probably be more emergency plans in the fall. For the SVP, migration is one of the most important issues in this election campaign. At the latest when there are bottlenecks in accommodation, the other parties will also have to address the issue.