class=”sc-3778e872-0 cKDKQr”>
“I felt like I was in prison.” Maria Mostafavi (name changed) speaks openly about her time in the Federal Asylum Center. She sweetens nothing. That would not do justice to the heavy thoughts that accompany her daily, she says. She wishes to remain anonymous for fear of jeopardizing her residence status.
“I get panic attacks when I think about how alone I was there,” says the young woman, pouring cocoa powder into the warm milk and letting her gaze wander around the Zurich cafe. “How lonely I am.”
At the age of 16, Maria Mostafavi crossed the Swiss border near Basel in the fall of 2021. Only. She was registered as an unaccompanied minor asylum seeker – as an amv. The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) defines UMA as minors who entered Switzerland without parents or legal guardians.
Your asylum application will receive preferential treatment. You are entitled to legal assistance and short daily talks with a social worker. In 2021, 989 unaccompanied minors applied for asylum, a year later there were 2450. Most of them come from Afghanistan. Many of them have experienced physical violence in their home countries or on the run. This often leads to trauma or other psychological problems. Young people are therefore particularly vulnerable.
After entering the country, those seeking protection, such as Maria Mostafavi, are housed in federal asylum seekers centers. She was assigned to that in Basel. For five months she lived in a small space with seven other unaccompanied minors. That was her first transfer stay, five more would follow.
“We couldn’t do anything in the Federal Asylum Center. There was a playroom, but it was locked,” she says in the café. Suddenly a line forms on her forehead. “I wasn’t even allowed to go to school. I was told it was full.”
Privacy is different
The SEM writes in a care manual that young people are “offered protection and security [soll]so that they can develop in an age-appropriate way». In addition, “their privacy must be respected”. But the reality looks different. Now even more than when Mostafavi was around.
Contrary to its own regulations, the SEM introduced a new group of asylum seekers in the autumn of 2022: the independent unaccompanied minor asylum seekers (SUMA). These are young people aged 16 to 18 who “do not appear to be particularly vulnerable”.
This reclassification has far-reaching consequences for SUMA. You may lose several youth rights defined by the SEM. Above all, the right to a personal socio-educational reference person. Because the school system is overburdened, the SUMA is denied access to school – without the possibility of any other education. In addition, they are housed in rooms that are not appropriate for their age, sometimes with more than a hundred people of the same age.
The SEM confirms to the observer that the UMA is divided into two groups. However, the authority emphasizes that the term SUMA is not an official designation. Rather, it is a “working concept” that serves to differentiate between different support groups. “A temporary solution,” reads a statement.
The “workaround” has tangible consequences. In Dübendorf ZH, for example, until recently, 140 SUMA lived for six weeks in a multipurpose room. “There was no lounge, just a prayer room separated by partitions,” says Ines Lindner (name changed), a former Zurich Asylum Organization (AOZ) employee.
Lindner was required to sign a non-disclosure agreement, so she remains anonymous. ‘The bunk beds were set up in the hall. So there was no retreat or privacy.” A clear contradiction to the principles that the SEM has drawn up for dealing with unaccompanied minors.
The older, independent UMs are received and housed differently than the younger UMs. However, there are minimum requirements that differ from those for adult asylum seekers.
If individual SUMA visibly need more care, they can be relegated to AMV, says Ines Lindner. That has happened to some. “The question is whether it really happens to everyone in need.”
The Dübendorfer SUMA have now been returned to the Federal Asylum Center Embrach ZH. According to Lindner, the move involved a huge amount of work for everyone involved. “The SEM seemed quite haphazard.”
An “emergency plan”
The main purpose of the new SUMA status is to save resources. The caregiver relationship provides one social worker for 15 AMA, but none for adults. Because more than 70 percent of registered unaccompanied minors are aged 16 or older, significantly fewer skilled workers are needed.
The migration authority speaks of an “emergency concept”. It was founded because there was a lack of skilled workers and apartments – caused by the increased number of unaccompanied minor asylum applications. “Where there are temporarily too few resources, older unaccompanied minors are taken in as adult asylum seekers”, it says.
Older unaccompanied minors would be placed in centers where they live with adults, but in separate dormitories. Housing and care is “somewhat non-specific and less intensive” in accordance with her age and maturity.
As soon as sufficient staff is available or the number of unaccompanied minors decreases, normal operations will resume – and the unaccompanied minors will be cared for again according to the manual, the SEM assures. How long this will take is uncertain. Only so much: “As of today, we are missing about 23 full-time socio-educational jobs across Switzerland.”
This article is from The Observer. More exciting articles can be found at www.bewachter.ch.
This article is from The Observer. More exciting articles can be found at www.bewachter.ch.
But there are also weekly consultation hours for social-pedagogical care providers for SUMA. Each canton alone decides on access to school. The SEM claims not to deny the young people any rights. By splitting up the group of minors, the living situation is optimized spatially.
Ines Lindner disagrees: “For the introduction of the new category, a team had to take care of more than 200 UMA at the same time. Even then we could not do justice to the young people in any way.” She fears an aggravation of the problem: “Due to the subdivision, many SUMAs do not receive the right care during the first important months in Switzerland.”
Luckily I had an ID with me
When she arrived in Switzerland, the minor Maria Mostafavi had an identity card with her. That was crucial. The SUMA status is also controversial because the age of asylum seekers is often difficult to determine.
Young people who cannot identify themselves and who are suspected of being of legal age will be sent for age verification. Body size, weight, signs of sexual maturity, or teeth are intended to provide indications of biological age. The methods are scientifically controversial.
“I almost only know of cases where those affected are ‘aged’,” says Sandra Rumpel. The child and youth psychotherapist heads the association Gezinshulp, which enables refugees to receive treatment. “The accuracy of the age assessment varies by one to two years.
This is especially important for young people.” Last year, 495 of the 1,040 young people were classified as adults after the age check and were therefore excluded from support measures, the “Aargauer Zeitung” reported.
Maria Mostafavi was recognized as an unaccompanied minor. But while she might have fared better than the young people who are practically treated as adults at SUMA, she felt left alone.
Her voice remains calm as she speaks. But the hands speak excitedly. “I’ve been asking for psychological help at every call with my social worker — every two to three weeks.” You never got it. “The appointments were always fully booked.” Her only glimmer of hope: 20 minutes of internet twice a day. Otherwise she passed the time in her room painting or writing.
Mostafavi takes her mobile phone out of her pocket and shows her photos. Some shine in bright colors and show wild brush strokes, others are nothing more than thin silhouettes. She could express her feelings, a kind of therapy.
Up to three out of four refugee children and young people have trauma disorders, says Sandra Rumpel. “Asylum centers and the often short-term relocations are not curative educational environments for young people.” Sleep disturbances due to overcrowded rooms, noise or quarrels between residents further exacerbate the stressful condition. Despite this, few receive psychological support.
Experts see a violation of UN guidelines
Even though the SUMA is not an official category according to the SEM, experts say the classification violates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This obliges Member States to guarantee the rights of every child. These include the right to equality and education, protection of privacy and dignity.
“The focus is not on the needs of those affected, but on the figures for asylum and security policy,” says Sandra Rumpel. If young people are denied their status as children, they miss out on part of their development.
“UMA is in survival mode during the escape and is constantly overwhelmed. This makes them appear very independent to the outside world.” However, the vulnerable and undeveloped parts of the personality are still there. If these are not compensated for, developmental delays develop that become more difficult to treat with age.
By leaving the young people alone, the SEM sends them a signal: “We will not invest in you.” That is “economic nonsense”, even when it comes to integration.
Maria Mostafavi is happy that she has been able to leave the time in the asylum seekers’ center behind. The 18-year-old now attends secondary school and lives in a flat at the foot of the Üetliberg in Zurich. She goes to therapy once a week. But she doesn’t feel at home. The fear of a sudden switch the next day is too great. “I never know when the phone will ring and it’s that time again.”
She hopes that after high school she can stay in Switzerland to study. Her dream is to become a heart surgeon. “Then I can travel to Greece or Africa and help people who are in dire need.”
Source:Blick
I am Liam Livingstone and I work in a news website. My main job is to write articles for the 24 Instant News. My specialty is covering politics and current affairs, which I’m passionate about. I have worked in this field for more than 5 years now and it’s been an amazing journey. With each passing day, my knowledge increases as well as my experience of the world we live in today.
