Fight against illegal migration: Switzerland does not want to be a transit country

More and more migrants are entering Germany illegally via Switzerland. Both countries have agreed on controls, especially on trains. But that’s not enough, the police union complains.

Early in the morning at the Swiss border with Austria. At 6:59 a.m. sharp, the night train from Vienna arrives at the station in the eastern Swiss municipality of Buchs. Officials from the Swiss Border Guard go through the train. As every day, illegal migrants are on board again: around 60 young men from Morocco, Tunisia and Afghanistan.

While the Moroccans and Tunisians want to travel on to France and Spain, the Afghans are drawn to Germany: “My brother is in Germany, his father and mother were killed by the Taliban.”

All migrants came via the so-called Balkan route. Some of them previously entered Turkey or Serbia legally. Some say that they then set off on foot to Vienna. From there we took the train to Switzerland.

High bureaucratic hurdles

There they are registered by the police, their personal details are recorded and it is checked whether they have committed crimes. Actually, Switzerland should send the young men back to Austria. Under the Dublin Agreement, migrants must apply for asylum in the country where they entered the EU.

Reto Kormann from the Swiss migration authority says that the bureaucratic hurdles are too high: “Of course, Austria doesn’t take all people back until it’s clearly proven that these people have actually applied for asylum in Austria. Austria has certain deadlines that they for the clarification. But by then these people, who want to go to France and Germany, have long since gone into hiding and left.”

“We can’t hold these people down”

And so, under the eyes of the Swiss officials, the migrants continue by train, for example to Basel, in the direction of Germany. After all, you can’t force them to stay, emphasizes Kormann. Although Switzerland has also signed the EU asylum agreement and the refugees entered the country illegally.

“If you don’t apply for asylum with us, we have no means of detaining these people here,” says Kormann. “They get an eviction notice and then they have to leave Switzerland. But again: we can’t arrest these people.”

A situation with which neither Switzerland nor Germany are satisfied, according to their own statements. They now want to take action against illegal migration – with an action plan. One of the explicitly mentioned goals is to prevent irregular onward migration.

Dublin Agreement should be more effective again

In the meantime, police officers from both countries are also jointly checking Swiss territory – especially on trains. The German police union is not the only one to say that this alone is not enough. Last year alone, more than 9,700 people were caught. The currently practiced veil search is not to be compared with stationary border controls.

This is also known in Switzerland. The country wants to work at European level to ensure that refugees – as planned – apply for asylum in the countries where they enter the EU, so that they don’t even get to Switzerland or Germany.

“We are working with Germany to ensure that this Dublin agreement is applied properly again. So that we can quickly return Dublin to all EU countries,” says Kormann.