Switzerland is still missing from the Ukrainian database

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The Russian offensive war against Ukraine has been raging for more than a year. Millions of people had to flee. About four million people have found temporary protection in the EU. Switzerland has also granted protection to nearly 80,000 people, and more than 65,000 refugees currently have active protection status. 14,000 Ukrainians have left Switzerland in recent months.

It remains unclear whether they returned to Ukraine or traveled on to another third country, for example to an EU country. Corresponding data is missing. At best, that would be different if Switzerland were to participate in the EU registration platform for Ukrainians. For a year now, all refugees who have received “temporary protection” – which corresponds to the local protection status S – have been registered here.

Registration is intended to prevent misuse

The Ukrainian database must ensure that there is a certain overview of the distribution and that the intake can be better coordinated. In addition, the EU wants to prevent people seeking protection from registering in different countries at the same time and, for example, wrongly receiving support funds – such as social assistance – twice or even more than once.

In principle, anyone seeking protection can move freely to another country, as the status applies throughout the EU. For example, if you move from Poland to Germany, you are entitled to appropriate support, such as social assistance, in Germany instead of Poland.

Swiss participation has not been discussed so far

A year ago Karin Keller-Sutter (59, FDP), then Minister of Justice and now Minister of Finance, announced that Switzerland also wants to participate in the platform. Nothing came of this plan – not even under the new Justice Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (59, SP) – as the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) Blick confirms.

“Since the launch of this platform, Switzerland has expressed interest in being part of it,” said SEM spokesman Samuel Wyss. “Discussions with the European Commission are still ongoing.” Switzerland clarifies a number of legal and technical questions that could arise in this context.

In addition, the question arises whether the platform is really useful for Switzerland or whether it has disadvantages. Especially with a view to the prevention of abuse, the experience of the past year shows that abuse of protection status is rare in this country.

“It has only been observed that refugees with protection status travel from an EU country to Switzerland,” says Wyss. There are also cases where Ukrainians who lived in an EU country before the war tried to get protection status S in Switzerland. “We carefully review each application and reject such cases.”

Whether Switzerland will participate in the EU registration platform in the foreseeable future cannot be said by the SEM spokesperson. “But the talks with Brussels show that both parties have a fundamental interest in Switzerland’s participation,” says Wyss.

For the time being, it remains unclear what rights and obligations this entails for Switzerland and protection seekers. This should be laid down in an accompanying agreement. Only: “Switzerland has not yet had a corresponding design,” Wyss confirms.

SVP-Bircher wants to disable protection status

Whether Parliament must also give its blessing depends on the specific content of an agreement. Without critical questions, however, it would hardly continue. “In principle, I would welcome such a database, so that cases of abuse can be better prevented,” says SVP national councilor Martina Bircher (39, AG). “Today we are in the dark if someone in Germany and Switzerland collects social assistance benefits twice.” Then there is a big but: “Simply adopting all EU legislation is not an option for me.”

She would rather see Switzerland say goodbye to protection status S and apply the normal asylum procedure to Ukrainians as well. The protection status expires in March 2024. “It may then only be extended for those who already have it today – and this for as long as the war lasts,” says Bircher. “But anyone who arrives must apply for asylum.”

With this, the SVP woman also wants to counter the forces that want to extend protection status to other groups of people. “The longer the backlog remains in protection, the greater the chance that the corresponding privileges will be extended to all asylum seekers,” Bircher fears. “We must prevent that.”

Source:Blick