Poorly utilized special flights: Entire planes for individual rejected asylum seekers

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Every year, the federal government deports rejected asylum seekers. Most travel on regular scheduled flights. However, there are always people who refuse to leave the country. There are special flights for them.

This can lead to the seemingly absurd scene of a very empty plane waiting for a single person. The “NZZ am Sonntag” reports about this. Last year there were five special flights with only one person on board. This is supervised by police officers and medical staff.

The “NZZ am Sonntag” has received the figures of the special flights from the State Secretariat for Migration SEM. The flights are often very underused, often for long distances. Last February, Switzerland sent a two-seater plane to southern Africa.

Short term cancellations again and again

Last year there were 24 such special flights – with a total of 115 deportees. The average occupancy of the vending machines is 4.8 people, the newspaper reports.

SEM boss Christine Schraner Burgener explains to the newspaper that several people are actually always scheduled on the flights. However, there are always short-term cancellations. For example, because the person has gone into hiding, the judge has stopped the deportation or for medical reasons.

Right-wing politicians are annoyed by the practice – but also left-wing migration politicians: “From a cost and environmental point of view, it is complete nonsense to fly halfway around the world with one or two people,” says Green Greta Gysin to “NZZ ben Sonntag”. (new)

Source:Blick