Swiss asylum requests dropped in January

Statistics released today show the number of asylum requests fell by nearly a quarter in January, compared to December. A total of 3,618 applications were lodged during the month. The largest number, 1,224, came from Afghanistan, followed by Syria (488), Iraq (367) and Eritrea (233).

The Swiss State Secretariat of Migration said that numbers typically drop during winter months. The biggest falls were in the numbers coming from Afghanistan (down by 759) and Syria (down by 308).

2,429 asylum applications were processed in January. Of these 848 (35%) didn’t qualify for entry, 466 (19%) were granted asylum, 537 (22%) were granted provisional admission, while the remainder were added to those applications held in suspense, bringing the total number of files in suspense to 1,378.

During January, 715 failed applicants left Switzerland or were repatriated.

In January, Switzerland, which had a per capita refugee population 3.5 times the EU average in 2014, made a request to transfer 2,217 asylum to other states party to the Dublin Regulation. Of these 268 were transferred. Other Dublin-Regulation states requested 201 transfers to Switzerland. 39 of these transfers were made in January.

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