Illegal immigration into Switzerland almost tripled last year, the government announced, citing a recent influx of Afghan and Moroccan migrants. | AFP
The number of people arrested on suspicion of people smuggling stood at 476 last year, in line with the 478 arrested in 2021.
Landlocked Switzerland — population 8.7 million, including 2.2 million foreigners — is one of the 27 states in Europe’s Schengen open-borders zone. It therefore has no passport checks on its borders with the surrounding countries France, Germany, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. Thursday’s figures show how illegal immigration declined during the pandemic but rose again in the second half of 2021 after most countries lifted Covid-19 restrictions.It cited border guards saying many people entering Switzerland were using an Austrian asylum procedure card for identification.Two-thirds of the illegal immigration arrests in 2022 took place in the last five months of the year.
In October, the State Secretariat for Migration said Serbia in particular had become a departure point for migrants. “The number of illegal immigrants entering European countries bordering the Western Balkans has risen sharply in recent months. With up to 1,100 people a week being apprehended at the eastern border, Switzerland is also strongly affected by this migratory flow,” it said in a statement.This does not include the nearly 73,000 Ukrainian refugees who have obtained temporary protection in Switzerland since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
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