- German authorities criticize Switzerland for its asylum policy.
- The reason for the criticism is the around a thousand refugees who arrive in Buchs (SG) every week and are not prevented from continuing their journey by the Swiss authorities.
- However, the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) sees no legal basis for detaining these people.
You come by train from Austria. And most of them want to continue straight away – to France, for example, or Germany. The Swiss border guard checks the arrivals and checks whether someone is wanted by the police – if this is not the case, the border guards let the refugees move on. The police in the canton of St. Gallen confirmed the practice to “NZZ am Sonntag”: “We formally allow onward travel”.
In Germany, this is increasingly met with resentment: illegal entries into Germany have increased to such an extent that the police are already having serious problems, says Andrea Lindholz, deputy leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, in the “NZZ am Sonntag”. Switzerland must fulfill its obligations as a member of the Schengen area. “If these reports are true, Switzerland will just wave it through.” The German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees also says: Switzerland is not acting in accordance with the Dublin Agreement. Simply waving through is not possible, the legal situation is clear.
SEM sees no legal basis
The SRF program “Rundschau” showed at the beginning of October that SBB provides migrants arriving in Buchs (SG) from Austria with their own wagons for the onward journey via Zurich to Basel. For Lindholz, SBB is thus promoting illegal entry into Germany. She calls for the Swiss authorities to intervene. “Switzerland must fulfill its obligations as a member of the Schengen area and take action against illegal migration.”
However, the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) sees no legal basis for detaining people. There is a transport obligation for the SBB. And before a Dublin procedure is through, which is intended to determine which country is responsible for conducting an asylum procedure, people have traveled farther a long time. “No Dublin procedure can be carried out for people who are no longer present,” said the SEM spokesman for the newspaper. The Dublin Agreement will be respected holds office.
Experts disagree
The professor of migration law, Sarah Progin-Theuerkauf, described the forwarding of migrants in the “Rundschau” program as “a violation of the law, and that is not compatible with the Dublin Agreement.” Because an asylum procedure must be carried out in the country into which a refugee demonstrably first entered.
Another professor of migration law, Alberto Achermann, sees things differently: “Dublin only comes into play when a person applies for asylum,” he told the “NZZ am Sonntag”. The migrants who arrive in Buchs usually don’t do that.