The Swiss Episcopal Conference has issued a communiqué on the procedure of consultation for the partial revision of the provisions on asylum (procedural questions, funding and expulsion). The amendments take on board the principles expressed by the programme of exemption of 2003, according to which cantons would no longer receive rebates for the social subsidies allocated to asylum seekers whose application has not been accepted and who are therefore subject to the provision of expulsion. “According to the data of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), there are some 37 million refugees in the world. Most seek refuge in developing countries that are among the poorest on the earth”, point out the Swiss bishops. “In spite of that, in many affluent countries, and also in Switzerland, questions concerning asylum and refugees are perceived only from their own point of view. This leads to tendencies to isolate themselves from refugees and to reactions of defence against them, without considering the fate from which these people are fleeing. They are people who have for the most part left their country because of wars and conflicts, or because they are persecuted and risk their life”. The bishops emphasise that, in spite of the fact that the number of wars and conflicts in the world has remained unvaried, “the number of asylum seekers in Switzerland dropped by over 20% last year in comparison with 2002”: “that’s why we see no urgent need for the introduction of measures that would further aggravate the already precarious situation of asylum seekers”. In the document, the Episcopal Conference makes a number of observations and proposals on the individual provisions comprised by the reform. The bishops endorse “the positions and requests” formulated by Caritas and by the Swiss organization for aid to refugees. The suggestions are prompted by the particular need “to ensure the fundamental right to give appropriate aid in situations of necessity, and the fair distribution of the relevant burdens between federations, cantons, social and welfare communities and associations”.
