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25 famous Swiss writers helped their colleagues escape from Afghanistan. These include Charles Lewinsky, Sabine Haupt and Lukas Bärfuss. They collaborated with the German-Swiss Writers Association.

The Swiss authors have taken on some kind of sponsorship for their professional colleagues from Afghanistan, Daniel Rothenbühler, chairman of the German-Swiss Pen Center, told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Wednesday. He confirmed an article in the “Woz weekly”.

So far 40 people – the Afghan authors and their families – have come to Switzerland. Nine people were still waiting for a positive decision to leave the country. Not all applications have been confirmed by the Secretariat of State for Migration (SEM) and the embassies in Tehran and Islamabad, according to the article. The association therefore appealed to the Federal Administrative Court in St. Gallen, Rothenbühler said. Some decisions are still pending.

The writers’ association initially did not want to make the action public. “We worked with the SEM and didn’t want to get it into political trouble,” Rothenbuhler said.

According to him, the Swiss authors have provided “real help”: from exchanging emails with their professional colleagues, to financial support and airport pick-ups. According to “Woz”, private individuals and foundations also supported the project with CHF 50,000. (saw/sda)