Switzerland is ready to take in large numbers of people seeking protection from Ukraine. The Federal Council has chosen a gratifyingly pragmatic path.
In Switzerland, too, the willingness to help the victims of the Russian attack on Ukraine is great (demonstration on Saturday on the Bundesplatz in Bern).
Is Switzerland still neutral? Does the country protect rich Russians who have bank accounts here? And what about the sanctions? The Federal Council’s crisis management in the first days of the Russian attack on Ukraine temporarily raised more questions than it answered. The unprofessional communication led to misunderstandings and resentment at home and abroad. This is and remains annoying – even if this reference may seem petty in view of the brutal violence and the misery in Ukraine.
It is all the more important that the Federal Council left no doubts about at least one key issue from the outset: Switzerland is showing solidarity with the refugees from Ukraine. Without much ado, it quickly and unhelvetically placed itself alongside the other European countries. On Monday, the State Secretariat for Migration in Zurich presented its plan for the coming weeks.
Keller-Sutter pulls the strings
The handwriting of the responsible Federal Councilor cannot be overlooked. Right from the start, Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter understood how to retain the authority to interpret asylum policy issues. Her connection to her colleagues in the EU countries is close, her will to lead is clear. She skillfully steered the domestic debate in the direction she thought was right. And that means: Switzerland is part of Europe. She is actively involved in the discussions and then supports the decisions that have been made.
Anything else would be strange in a crisis of this magnitude. Although Switzerland is not adopting EU law, it is essentially preparing a set of rules for the Ukrainian refugees that should correspond as precisely as possible to those of the EU. To this end, the Federal Council intends to make the regulations more generous in several points than previously planned. For example, Ukrainian refugees should be able to take up work early on.
All of this is going in the right direction. Switzerland is showing unbureaucratic solidarity to the extent that this is possible in a well-established constitutional state. For the first time, the Federal Council wants to activate the protection status S, which Switzerland anchored in the asylum law in 1998 due to the experience with the Balkan wars.
It was specially created for situations like today’s: for acute crises in which many people seek protection at the same time. And it seems like a sad greeting from another time that well-known circles wanted to abolish the S status a few years ago because they thought Switzerland no longer needed something like that.
Nobody knows how many will come
Not even close. Today, the S status enables pragmatic solutions. Those fleeing the war in Ukraine quickly receive temporary protection without having to go through an asylum procedure. This is important so that the refugees, many of whom are women and children, can leave the asylum centers as quickly as possible and move into individual accommodation. Bern thus also prevents the asylum system from being overloaded.
Nobody knows yet how many people from Ukraine will seek protection in Switzerland. So far, the majority have preferred to seek shelter in one of the neighboring countries, which is also possible thanks to the impressive willingness to accept people, especially in Poland. But who knows how things will develop. The determination and, above all, the increasing brutality of Russian warfare make us fear the worst.
Important questions can only be clarified later
The dark hour requires Switzerland to arm itself. It makes sense that with the S status she chooses a flexible way to be able to help quickly. It is unavoidable that some questions, such as the duration of protection in particular, remain unanswered. Today nobody knows how long the war will last, how it will end and what Ukraine will look like in the future.
Only one thing seems clear: the longer the war rages on, the more urgent the question will be as to when Switzerland should reconsider the declared goal of returning the Ukrainian refugees and instead push for their integration – also out of self-interest.
Today is not the time for this debate. Today it’s time to help.