23% decrease in number of asylum applications in Switzerland in 2020 due to COVID-19

The number of persons seeking international protection in Switzerland decreased almost a quarter (23 per cent) to 11,041 last year, based on the statistics published by the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM).

According to SEM, the Coronavirus outbreak is the main reason for the decline, as it pushed countries worldwide to impose entry bans, lockdowns and other restrictions in order to keep the pandemic situation under control, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Eritrean citizens (1,917), accounted for the majority number of citizenships who sought international protection in Switzerland during last year, followed by citizens of Afghanistan, Algeria as well as Syria.

The State Secretariat for Migration stressed that the increase in the number of Eritreans applying for international protection in Switzerland is due to births and family reunions.

Over 17,220 requests were processed by Switzerland’s asylum authorities, reducing the overall backlog to 3,852 cases, the lowest figures since 1994.

A total of 5,409 persons were granted asylum status in Switzerland during 2020.

SEM stressed that the number of asylum seekers who voluntarily left Switzerland also marked a decrease to 1,051, during 2020, or down by over than 600 compared to the previous year.

In total, 745 persons were deported to one of the countries that signed the Dublin agreement or their country of origin.

As for this year, the State Secretariat for Migration stressed that it expects about 15,000 applications for international protection.

In April 2020, the Federal Asylum Centers and Cantonal Facilities announced that they registered dozens of entries per week, compared to January and February figures. Based on SEM’s figures, a total of 965 asylum requests were registered during March last year.

Switzerland is not the only country where the number of asylum seekers marked a decrease during last year; the Coronavirus pandemic affected all the European countries.

Denmark’s Ministry of Immigration and Integration recently announced that only 1,547 persons sought international protection in Denmark during last year. According to the Ministry of Integration, the figures marked the lowest record in the number of international protection applications, registered in Denmark since 1998.

A recent report of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) revealed that about 40,900 persons sought asylum in EU countries in November 2020, still lower than the pre-pandemic figures.

Since the beginning of 2020, until the end of November, nearly 422,000 persons applied for international protection in European Union countries, a 31 per cent decline compared to 2019’s figures.

SOURCE: Schengen Visa Info

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