Parliament discusses legalization without paper: “The deterrent effect does not work”

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They have no papers and no prospects. More than 2,500 rejected asylum seekers in Switzerland have been living on emergency aid for more than a year. They should have left the country long ago, but they do not leave voluntarily and cannot be forcibly deported.

The National Council wants to help some of these people. In the spring he spoke out in favor of a proposal by the now resigning EPP national councilor Marianne Streiff-Feller (66). This calls for legalization of the status of long-term emergency aid recipients, whose asylum applications were still pending under the old asylum law, which was in force until 2019. The condition for this is that they speak the national language reasonably well and have not committed a crime.

“That would serve them and also society.”

EPP National Councilor Nik Gugger (53), who is fighting for the motion after Streiff-Feller’s resignation, explained in the National Council that it specifically concerns those affected from Tibet, Iran or Iraq. According to him, not integrating this would be “absolutely unreasonable”. “The deterrent effect that emergency aid should have does not work for them.”

Streiff-Feller speaks of an untenable situation. “These people receive emergency aid, have to live in centers and are not allowed to work. “It’s an unsatisfactory situation for everyone,” she says. With a residence permit they could work. “That would serve them and also our society.”

She is not the only one who sees it that way. In the National Council, in addition to the left, a majority of the center faction and individual liberals support the so-called regularization of these sans papers.

The Federal Council fears that it will send the wrong signal

The SVP is absolutely against this. The Aargauer SVP council member Martina Bircher (39) points out that this sends the wrong signal, namely: “Whatever the rule of law says, I can still stay.”

For this reason, the Federal Council is also against regularization. Although Asylum Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (59) admitted that nationals of certain countries sometimes have “great difficulties” in obtaining the documents needed to leave the country – that is, in some cases they cannot enter Switzerland at all leave, even if they wanted to.

Now the Council of States decides

Opponents of the proposal argue that those who are denied will have the opportunity to file a hardship application. However, the chances of it being accepted are infinitesimally small.

The Council of States will now decide on Tuesday. Only if the Stöckli says yes, some rejected people can hope for a residence permit. However, the provisional advisory committee of the Council of States recommends that its council reject the proposal. It remains to be seen whether Stöckli’s majority will follow this recommendation.

Source:Blick