Switzerland: Asylum and immigration (3)
01 January 1991
Switzerland: Asylum and immigration
artdoc April=1995
Referendum approves new `Measures of Constraint' law
A referendum, approved by all 26 of Switzerland's cantons, has
sanctioned a new `Measures of Constraint' law which will give the
police sweeping new powers to jail foreign workers and rejected
asylum-seekers for up to one year. Seventy-two per cent of voters
approved the law, with the canton of Zurich registering the
highest approval-rate, with 80.6 per cent of voters in favour.
Geneva showed most opposition to the law, with 47.7 per cent
voting against it.
The referendum is being seen as a popular move by the
government to increase its chances of re-election in 1995 by
pandering to racism. Human rights groups say the law represents
the most draconian anti-immigrant statute in Europe. `The law has
been presented as an attack upon drug dealers but... was in
reality drafted by the department for foreigners and refugees who
wanted to improve the deportation system' said Bruno Clement, a
legal expert in Lausanne. The constraint measures limit the right
to judicial appeal for those denied asylum and allow for
`preventative' and `administrative detention', the possibility
of `house arrests', the demarcation of `off limit' areas and
special measures aimed at withdrawing the right to protest from
refugees. Asylum-seekers and foreigners without the correct
documentation could be detained for 3 months and a further 9
months if they are to be repatriated.
Although the police justified the new measures as necessary in
order to tackle `drugs-related violence... exacerbated by illegal
immigrants', critics point out that the law will seriously effect
the right of asylum and the rights of 200,000 foreign workers.
There was also anger at the timing of a high-profiled police
operation against Balkan drug-importation. The arrest of 99 drug-
dealers - mainly ethnic Albanians from Kosovo - took place just
a day before the referendum took place. The police said the
timing was `just accidental' (Guardian 3, 5.12.94, Independent
5.12.94).
Kurds kept in `preventative detention'
The Kurdistan Committee has accused the Swiss government of
arresting two Kurdish activists and placing them in `preventative
detention' in order to appease the Turkish government with which
it has increasing political ties. No witnesses are willing to
testify against the two Kurds who have been accused of
`racketeering' but the Geneva prosecutor says they will be held
in detention until a better case can be made (Le Courrier 11.10,
15.11.94).
Scandal over Rwandan `war criminal'
Alexandre Hunziker has been forced to resign as director of the
Federal Office of Foreigners after the Swiss government was
sharply criticised for allowing a Rwandan accused of `crimes
against humanity' into Switzerland although he was, in principle,
banned from the country.
The presence in Switzerland of Felicien Kabuga, head of Radio
Télévisio-Mille-Collines, whose broadcasts incited the massacres
of Tutsis in Rwanda last Spring, was highlighted by the Rwanda-
Swiss Committee. They called for his arrest, but the Swiss
authorities reacted to the scandal by placing Mr. Kabuga and his
family on a plane to Zaire.
The man who has replaced Hunziker at the Foreigners Office is
Peter Huber, nicknamed `Mr. Files' by his critic for his role as
a former head of the political police. Hunziker was suspended for
having kept secret files on over half a million foreigners (Le
Courrier 8, 10, 11, 11.94).
Tamil asylum-seeker commits suicide
A 27-year-old Tamil man, R. Jeyalkumar, has committed suicide in
Baden, St. Gallen, after being told that he would be deported
because he was one day late paying the 300F for his asylum appeal
to be heard. Jeyalkumar has come to Switzerland in September `91
and had to give up his job on learning of the deportation order
against him. Before he killed himself, by hanging himself in the
ce