Controversial asylum practice – proven for the first time: Eritrea returnees were tortured – News


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The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) is confronted with the first official case of torture of a Swiss returnee from Eritrea. You are now examining the facts, says the office.

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According to official Switzerland, the story of Yonas* should not exist at all: Once he fled to Switzerland from the Eritrean national service, his application for asylum was rejected in 2017 by the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). His statements are contradictory. The Federal Administrative Court confirms the decision of the migration authorities. Yonas ends up in emergency relief.

Switzerland’s asylum policy in Eritrea


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Switzerland’s asylum policy towards Eritrean refugees has steadily tightened in recent years. For a long time there was a de facto deportation stop for refugees from Eritrea and illegal escape from the dictatorship alone was enough for temporary admission to Switzerland. That is no longer the case.

In 2017, the Federal Administrative Court even decided that it was no longer “generally unreasonable” for rejected asylum seekers to return to Eritrea. For those affected, this means that they either end up in emergency aid for an indefinite period of time or voluntarily return to the dictatorship. According to the State Secretariat for Migration, the protection rate for Eritrean refugees is currently 85 percent (see chart).

His future prospects are bleak: either a voluntary return to the Eritrean dictatorship or a life in emergency aid. In the hopeless situation, the refugee attempts suicide and decides to return to Eritrea in 2018.

Two weeks of interrogation and torture after return

«At Asmara Airport, two men came up to me and asked me: are you Yonas? Then they took everything from me. Also the $3,000 that I received from Switzerland as start-up money,” says the 35-year-old Eritrean. He was interrogated in a dark room. “Why did you escape?” the soldiers would have asked.

Swiss refugee aid criticizes Eritrea’s asylum policy


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“Eritrea is a dictatorship and the most serious violations of human rights are the order of the day,” says Eliane Engeler from the Swiss refugee agency. The organization criticizes that no adequate risk assessment can be made for a return to Eritrea.

“There is no monitoring of people who are turned away and go back. This is not possible at all due to the situation in the country. That means there is no reliable information about what happens to those who return.” The refugee aid states that the Eritreans cannot return despite the decision to expel them and are either stuck in emergency aid or are being pushed into illegality.

They would have known very well about his life in Switzerland. Also that he took part in a demonstration in Geneva against the Eritrean government. “Then they hit me. With stick and belt. Especially on the legs and back, again and again». After two weeks of interrogation and torture, Yonas is imprisoned.

Torture case confirmed after Swiss expulsion

The State Secretariat for Migration has so far denied that rejected Eritrean refugees are at risk of human rights violations if they return to Eritrea. The fact is: until the Yonas case, the authorities did not know what happened to returnees because they did not have the necessary information.

“We can then not monitor the people there,” says Daniel Bach from the SEM. “However, we have no information that returned persons – apart from this case that they present to us – experience human rights violations.”

Second asylum application approved

After several months in prison, Yonas managed to escape from Eritrea illegally for the second time. The research collective “Reflekt” tracked him down on his way to Europe and reported on the case for the first time in 2020 in the online magazine “Republik”.

In mid-2021, Yonas will return to Switzerland and submit a second application for asylum. This will be approved in December 2021. Yonas receives refugee status B and is definitely accepted. The State Secretariat for Migration keeps the justification under lock and key and does not have to make it public.

Is the SEM changing its Eritrea asylum practice?

It is unclear whether the State Secretariat for Migration will change its asylum practice in Eritrea as a result of the Yonas case. Daniel Bach from the SEM says: “Of course we will take a close look at the case. If we conclude from this that there is a much greater threat than previously assumed, this could lead to a deportation stop for Eritrean refugees.”

*Name changed to protect relatives in Eritrea

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