The situation is much more worrying in Greece, Croatia or Austria, where one could speak of a crisis, Piguet said in an interview with Le Temps published on Saturday.
If the number of asylum seekers continues to rise, “it is still possible to adjust the standards, but the living conditions in the asylum structures are already very spartan”, the migration expert notes.
The Federal Council on Friday decided on a subsidiary deployment of the army, which will provide the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) with additional housing and military personnel to cope with the influx of asylum seekers. The SEM assumes that 3,000 extra beds will be needed in the medium term.
Piguet explains the influx with the increase in wars, violence and humanitarian crises, particularly in Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan and Iran. In addition, globalization has brought the different parts of the world closer together.
“Today in Europe you can ask for protection from much further away than in the 1960s, even if you risk your life,” Piguet noted. In addition to the improved transport links, “a real tugboat industry” has emerged. However, 72 percent of people fled their country to a neighboring area.
The Federal Council estimates that the number of people from Ukraine in Switzerland will rise to 75,000 by the end of the year and the number of asylum seekers to 24,000.
(SDA)