Most searched: Why so many Turks want asylum in Switzerland

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Last year, 30,223 people applied for asylum in Switzerland. The main country of origin for asylum seekers was Afghanistan with 7,934 applications, of which approximately 1,800 were submitted by women who have been staying here for a long time as temporarily admitted persons. Turkey comes in second place with a total of 6,822 applications. This means: Actually, most new applications come from the country on the Bosphorus.

The number of asylum applications from Turkish citizens has increased significantly across Europe in 2023, by more than 40 percent in Switzerland. That corresponds to 2,000 requests, more than in 2022. There is no war in Turkey – why are so many people still coming from Turkey?

Problematic human rights situation

The reason is apparently that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (69) tightened the screw. “Since the failed coup attempt in July 2016, the human rights situation in Turkey with regard to the exercise of political rights and freedom of expression has continuously deteriorated,” the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) said when asked.

The Turkish legal system often does not comply with constitutional principles, especially when it comes to political criminal proceedings. Supporters of the Gülen movement, believed to be behind the coup, members of the opposition and critics of President Erdogan “are suffering from a high degree of asylum-related persecution pressure,” a SEM spokeswoman said when asked.

Refugee Aid sees the situation the same way. “The human rights situation in Turkey remains problematic. More and more people are being forced to flee the authoritarian and repressive government,” spokesperson Lionel Walter told Blick. The increase is consistent with a trend already observed in recent years.

Those who are politically persecuted seek protection

A special group of Turkish citizens are the Kurds. They are often suspected by Turkish authorities of working with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) or other organizations banned by the state. The human rights situation in the southeast of the country – an area with a predominantly Kurdish population – has been particularly problematic for years.

The SEM cannot say to what extent the asylum seekers are Kurds, because it does not register the ethnicity of the asylum seekers. However, when it comes to refugee aid, it is said that there is a relatively large Kurdish-Turkish community in Switzerland. For this reason, many Kurds probably sought shelter in Switzerland.

The protection rate decreases

However, Switzerland no longer grants asylum to as many Turks as before. While 81 percent of requests were answered positively in 2021, this percentage dropped to 46 percent in 2023. But that is still high compared to Iraq (14 percent) or Afghanistan (18 percent).

“In Switzerland too, we have recently found that the practice of the SEM and the Federal Administrative Court has become stricter and that people who would likely have received protection in previous years are also receiving negative decisions,” says Walter of Refugee Aid. The SEM also points out that more than half of all asylum applications for Turkish citizens concern family reunification.

Source:Blick