Asylum Act
(AsylA)

This Act reg­u­lates:

a.

the grant­ing of asylum and the leg­al status of refugees in Switzer­land;

b.

the tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion of per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion in Switzer­land and their re­turn.

¹ In re­sponse to an ap­plic­a­tion, Switzer­land grants asylum to refugees in ac­cord­ance with this Act.

² Asylum in­cludes the pro­tec­tion and the leg­al status gran­ted in Switzer­land to per­sons on the basis of their refugee status. It in­cludes the right to stay in Switzer­land.

¹ Refugees are per­sons who in their nat­ive coun­try or in their coun­try of last res­id­ence are sub­ject to ser­i­ous dis­ad­vant­ages or have a well-foun­ded fear of be­ing ex­posed to such dis­ad­vant­ages for reas­ons of race, re­li­gion, na­tion­al­ity, mem­ber­ship of a par­tic­u­lar so­cial group or due to their polit­ic­al opin­ions.

² Ser­i­ous dis­ad­vant­ages in­clude a threat to life, phys­ic­al in­teg­rity or free­dom as well as meas­ures that ex­ert in­tol­er­able psy­cho­lo­gic­al pres­sure. Motives for seek­ing asylum spe­cif­ic to wo­men must be taken in­to ac­count.

³ Per­sons who are sub­ject to ser­i­ous dis­ad­vant­ages or have a well-foun­ded fear of be­ing ex­posed to such dis­ad­vant­ages be­cause they have re­fused to per­form mil­it­ary ser­vice or have deser­ted are not refugees. The pro­vi­sions of the Con­ven­tion of 28 Ju­ly 1951⁴ re­lat­ing to the Status of Refugees are re­served.⁵

⁴ Per­sons who claim grounds based on their con­duct fol­low­ing their de­par­ture that are neither an ex­pres­sion nor a con­tinu­ation of a con­vic­tion already held in their nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin are not refugees. The pro­vi­sions of the Con­ven­tion of Refugee Con­ven­tion are re­served.⁶

Switzer­land may grant tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion to per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion as long as they are ex­posed to a ser­i­ous gen­er­al danger, in par­tic­u­lar dur­ing a war or civil war as well as in situ­ations of gen­er­al vi­ol­ence.

¹ No per­son may be forced in any way to re­turn to a coun­try where their life, phys­ic­al in­teg­rity or free­dom are threatened on any of the grounds stated in Art­icle 3 para­graph 1 or where they would be at risk of be­ing forced to re­turn to such a coun­try.

² The ban on re­foule­ment may not be in­voked if there are sub­stan­tial grounds for the as­sump­tion that, be­cause the per­son in­vok­ing it has a leg­ally bind­ing con­vic­tion for a par­tic­u­larly ser­i­ous felony or mis­de­mean­our, they rep­res­ent a threat to Switzer­land’s se­cur­ity or are to be con­sidered dan­ger­ous to the pub­lic.

¹ The State Sec­ret­ari­at for Mi­gra­tion (SEM) shall work with fed­pol with­in the scope of its stat­utory du­ties in or­der to com­bat ter­ror­ism.

² It shall co­ordin­ate the meas­ures for which it is re­spons­ible with fed­pol’s pre­vent­ive po­lice and ad­min­is­trat­ive meas­ures.

SEM shall with­in the scope of its du­ties and re­spons­ib­il­it­ies as­sess wheth­er for­eign na­tion­als pose a threat to Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity or in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions. When is­su­ing po­lice alerts, it shall no­ti­fy fed­pol. If ne­ces­sary, the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies con­cerned may also be no­ti­fied.

Pro­ced­ures are gov­erned by the Ad­min­is­trat­ive Pro­ced­ure Act of 20 Decem­ber 1968¹⁰ (APA), the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court Act of 17 June 2005¹¹ and the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court Act of 17 June 2005¹², un­less this Act provides oth­er­wise.

¹ SEM de­cides on grant­ing or re­fus­ing to grant asylum as well as on re­mov­al from Switzer­land.¹⁴

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall identi­fy states in addition to the EU/EFTA states in which on the basis of its find­ings:¹⁵

a.

there is pro­tec­tion against per­se­cu­tion, as a safe nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin;

b.

there is ef­fi­cient pro­tec­tion against re­foule­ment as defined in Art­icle 5 para­graph 1, as a safe third coun­try.

³ It shall peri­od­ic­ally re­view de­cisions made in terms of para­graph 2.

⁴ It shall provide the com­pet­ent com­mit­tees of the Fed­er­al As­sembly with the list of states in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 2 let­ter a for con­sulta­tion pri­or to any amend­ment and at least once each year.¹⁶

¹ Any per­son who ap­plies for asylum must prove or at least cred­ibly demon­strate their refugee status.

² Refugee status is cred­ibly demon­strated if the au­thor­ity re­gards it as proven on the bal­ance of prob­ab­il­it­ies.

³Cases are not credible in particular if theyare unfounded in essential points or are inherently contradictory, do not correspond to the facts or are substantially based on forged or falsified evidence.

¹ Asylum seekers are ob­liged to co­oper­ate in es­tab­lish­ing the facts. They must in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

re­veal their iden­tity;

b.¹⁷

hand over their travel doc­u­ments and iden­tity pa­pers;

c.

state at the in­ter­view why they are seek­ing asylum;

d.

in­dic­ate any evid­ence in full and sub­mit this without delay or, as far as this seems reas­on­able, en­deav­our to ac­quire such evid­ence with­in an ap­pro­pri­ate peri­od;

e.¹⁸

co­oper­ate in provid­ing bio­met­ric data;

f.¹⁹

un­der­go a med­ic­al ex­am­in­a­tion ordered by SEM (Art. 26a).

² Asylum seekers may be re­quired to ar­range for the trans­la­tion of for­eign-lan­guage doc­u­ments in­to one of Switzer­land’s of­fi­cial lan­guages.

³ Asylum seekers who reside in Switzer­land are ob­liged make them­selves avail­able to the fed­er­al and can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies dur­ing the pro­ced­ure. They must in­form the can­ton­al or com­mun­al au­thor­ity com­pet­ent un­der can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion (the can­ton­al au­thor­ity) of their ad­dress and any change to this im­me­di­ately.

^3bis Per­sons, who fail to cooperate without valid reason or fail to make themselves available for more than 20 days lose their right to have the procedure continued.This also ap­plies to per­sons who fail for more than 5 days to make them­selves avail­able to the asylum au­thor­it­ies in a fed­er­al centre without a val­id reas­on. Their applications are cancelled without a formal decision being taken. No new application may be filed within three years. The foregoing is subject to compliance with the Refugee Convention of 28 July 1951²⁰.²¹

⁴ In the event of an en­force­able re­mov­al rul­ing be­ing is­sued, the per­sons con­cerned are ob­liged to co­oper­ate in ob­tain­ing val­id travel doc­u­ments.

¹ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may search asylum seekers who are ac­com­mod­ated in a fed­er­al centre²² or in private or col­lect­ive ac­com­mod­a­tion and the pos­ses­sions they have with them for travel and iden­tity doc­u­ments as well as dan­ger­ous ob­jects, drugs and as­sets of du­bi­ous ori­gin.²³

² Asylum seekers may only be searched by mem­bers of the same sex.

¹ SEM²⁴ shall place asylum seekers’ travel doc­u­ments and iden­tity pa­pers on file.²⁵

² Au­thor­it­ies and gov­ern­ment of­fices shall seize and pass on to SEM travel doc­u­ments, iden­tity pa­pers or oth­er doc­u­ments which may in­dic­ate the iden­tity of per­son who has ap­plied for asylum in Switzer­land. Para­graph 5 ap­plies to re­cog­nised refugees.²⁶

³ If the au­thor­ity or gov­ern­ment of­fice seiz­ing doc­u­ments in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 2 ex­am­ine these with re­gard to their au­then­ti­city, SEM must be no­ti­fied of the res­ults of this ex­am­in­a­tion.

⁴ Forged and fals­i­fied doc­u­ments as well as genu­ine doc­u­ments which have been mis­used may be con­fis­cated by SEM or by the ap­pel­late au­thor­ity or passed on to the agent.

⁵ Pass­ports or iden­tity pa­pers that have been is­sued to refugees re­cog­nised in Switzer­land by their nat­ive coun­try must be passed on to SEM.²⁷

The asylum seeker may not ex­press a view on the de­cision of the au­thor­ity to con­duct an evid­en­tiary pro­ced­ure to es­tab­lish the facts of the case.

¹ Any rul­ing or com­mu­nic­a­tion sent to the last known ad­dress of asylum seekers or of their agents be­comes leg­ally bind­ing on ex­piry of the stat­utory sev­en-day time-lim­it for col­lec­tion, even if the per­sons con­cerned do not learn of this un­til later due to a spe­cial agree­ment with Swiss Post or if the de­liv­ery is re­turned as un­deliv­er­able.

²If the asylum seeker is represented by several agents and if these do not indicate a joint address for service, the authority shall give notification of its rulings or direct communications to the first agent authorised by the asylum seeker.

³ No­ti­fic­a­tion may be giv­en of rul­ings verbally and a sum­mary state­ment of grounds provided. Verbal no­ti­fic­a­tion must be re­cor­ded in minutes that in­clude a state­ment of the grounds. A copy of the minutes must be giv­en to the asylum seeker or to his or her agent.

¹ In fed­er­al centres, no­ti­fic­a­tion of rul­ings is giv­en and doc­u­ments are served by hand. If the asylum seeker has dis­ap­peared, no­ti­fic­a­tion and ser­vice are gov­erned by Art­icle 12.

² If an asylum seeker has been as­signed a leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive, no­ti­fic­a­tion of rul­ings shall be giv­en to and doc­u­ments shall be served on the ser­vice pro­vider tasked with provid­ing leg­al rep­res­ent­a­tion. The pro­vider shall in­form the leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive as­signed of the no­ti­fic­a­tion or ser­vice on the same day as it is re­ceived.

³ If an asylum seeker has not been as­signed a leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive, no­ti­fic­a­tion of rul­ings shall be giv­en to and doc­u­ments shall be served on the asylum seeker. An agent for the asylum seeker shall be in­formed im­me­di­ately of the no­ti­fic­a­tion or ser­vice.

⁴ Verbal no­ti­fic­a­tion and sum­mary jus­ti­fic­a­tion are gov­erned by Art­icle 12 para­graph 3.

¹ The com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies may also no­ti­fy per­sons ap­ply­ing for asylum at the bor­der or at the bor­der con­trol at a Swiss air­port (Art. 21–23) of a rul­ing by provid­ing them with a signed copy of the rul­ing that has been trans­mit­ted by fax. The per­sons con­cerned must con­firm in writ­ing that they have re­ceived the rul­ing; in the ab­sence of such con­firm­a­tion, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall form­ally re­cord that the rul­ing has been re­ceived. Art­icle 11 para­graph 3 of the APA³¹ does not ap­ply. Any agent shall be in­formed of the no­ti­fic­a­tion.

² Art­icle 12aap­plies mu­tatis mutandis to pro­ced­ures at air­ports.

³ In oth­er ur­gent cases, SEM may au­thor­ise a can­ton­al au­thor­ity, a Swiss dip­lo­mat­ic mis­sion or a con­su­lar rep­res­ent­a­tion abroad (Swiss rep­res­ent­a­tion) to no­ti­fy those con­cerned of a rul­ing by provid­ing them with a signed copy of the rul­ing that has been trans­mit­ted by fax.

¹ From fil­ing an asylum ap­plic­a­tion to de­par­ture from Switzer­land in ac­cord­ance with a leg­ally bind­ing re­mov­al or­der, fol­low­ing the with­draw­al of an asylum ap­plic­a­tion, or un­til the or­der­ing of a sub­sti­tute meas­ure in the event that re­mov­al can­not be en­forced, per­sons seek­ing asylum may not ini­ti­ate any pro­ced­ure for the grant­ing of a res­id­ence per­mit un­der the law on for­eign na­tion­als un­less they are en­titled to be is­sued with such a per­mit.

² The can­ton may with con­sent of SEM grant a per­son for whom it is re­spons­ible in terms of this Act a res­id­ence per­mit if:³³

a.

the per­son con­cerned has been a res­id­ent for a min­im­um of five years in Switzer­land since fil­ing the asylum ap­plic­a­tion;

b.

the place of stay of the per­son con­cerned has al­ways been known by the au­thor­it­ies;

c.

in light of their ad­vanced stage of in­teg­ra­tion, there is a case of ser­i­ous per­son­al hard­ship; and

d.³⁴

there are no grounds for re­voc­a­tion un­der Art­icle 62 para­graph 1 of the For­eign Na­tion­als and In­teg­ra­tion Act of 16 Decem­ber 2005³⁵ (FNIA)³⁶.

³ If the can­ton wishes to take ad­vant­age of this op­por­tun­ity, it shall in­form SEM without delay.

⁴ The per­son con­cerned shall only have party status dur­ing SEM's con­sent pro­ced­ure.

⁵Pending proceedings for the granting of a residence permit become irrelevant with the filing of an asylum application.

⁶ Res­id­ence per­mits re­main val­id and may be ex­ten­ded in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of the law on for­eign na­tion­als.

The can­tons may es­tab­lish in­ter­can­t­on­al of­fices to ful­fil the du­ties as­signed to them in ac­cord­ance with this Act, in par­tic­u­lar for the hear­ing, pre­par­a­tion of the de­cision and the en­force­ment of any re­mov­al or­der.

¹ Sub­mis­sions may be made to the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies in any of­fi­cial lan­guage. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­quire sub­mis­sions made in fed­er­al centres by asylum seekers who are rep­res­en­ted by an agent to be in the of­fi­cial lan­guage of the can­ton where the fed­er­al centre is loc­ated.³⁷

² SEM rul­ings or in­ter­im rul­ings are is­sued in the of­fi­cial lan­guage spoken at the asylum seeker’s place of res­id­ence.³⁸

³ SEM may derog­ate from para­graph 2 if:

a.

the asylum seeker or his or her leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive has a good com­mand of a dif­fer­ent of­fi­cial lan­guage;

b.

this is re­quired to deal with ap­plic­a­tions ef­fi­ciently and on time tak­ing ac­count of the num­ber of ap­plic­a­tions re­ceived and the staff situ­ation;

c.

the asylum seeker is al­loc­ated to a can­ton with a dif­fer­ent of­fi­cial lan­guage by a fed­er­al centre.³⁹

¹ The pro­vi­sion of the Ad­min­is­trat­ive Pro­ced­ure Act of 20 Decem­ber 1968⁴⁰ on leg­al hol­i­days does not ap­ply to asylum pro­ceed­ings.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue sup­ple­ment­ary pro­vi­sions on the asylum pro­ced­ure, in par­tic­u­lar to give con­sid­er­a­tion to the spe­cial situ­ation of wo­men and minors in the pro­ced­ure.

^2bis Ap­plic­a­tions for asylum made by un­ac­com­pan­ied minors shall be pro­cessed as a pri­or­ity.⁴¹

³ The in­terests of un­ac­com­pan­ied minor asylum seekers are taken care of for the dur­a­tion of the pro­ced­ure:

a.

in a fed­er­al centre or at an air­port by a per­son nom­in­ated as the trus­ted per­son by the leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive; this per­son is re­spons­ible for co­ordin­a­tion with the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies; or

b.

by a trus­ted per­son to be nom­in­ated im­me­di­ately by the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies, fol­low­ing al­loc­a­tion to the can­ton.⁴²

^3bis If there are in­dic­a­tions that an al­leged for­eign minor has reached the age of ma­jor­ity, SEM may ar­range an ex­pert re­port on that per­son's age.⁴³

⁴ ...⁴⁴

⁵ On no­ti­fic­a­tion of a de­cision un­der Art­icle 23 para­graph 1, 31a or 111c, SEM shall send the asylum seeker or his or her agent the case files at the same time if en­force­ment of the re­mov­al or­der has been ordered.⁴⁵

⁶ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the role, re­spons­ib­il­it­ies and du­ties of the trus­ted per­son.⁴⁶

SEM may charge third parties fees and out­lays for ser­vices.

Any state­ment a per­son makes in­dic­at­ing that they are seek­ing pro­tec­tion in Switzer­land from per­se­cu­tion else­where shall be re­garded as an ap­plic­a­tion for asylum.

¹ The ap­plic­a­tion for asylum must be filed at a bor­der con­trol point at a Swiss air­port, on entry at an open bor­der cross­ing or in a fed­er­al centre. Art­icle 24a para­graph 3 is re­served.

²An ap­plic­a­tion may only be filed by a per­son who is at the Swiss bor­der or on Swiss ter­rit­ory.

¹ Per­sons who re­quest asylum at the bor­der or fol­low­ing their de­ten­tion for il­leg­al entry in the vi­cin­ity of the bor­der or with­in Switzer­land shall be as­signed to a fed­er­al centre by the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies. Art­icle 24a para­graph 3 is re­served.⁵²

² SEM shall veri­fy its com­pet­ence to carry out the asylum pro­ced­ure, tak­ing ac­count of the pro­vi­sions of the Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments.

³ The Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments are lis­ted in An­nex 1.

¹ In the case of per­sons who ap­ply for asylum at a Swiss air­port, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall re­cord their per­son­al de­tails and take their fin­ger­prints and pho­to­graphs. It may re­cord ad­di­tion­al bio­met­ric data and sum­mar­ily ques­tion asylum seekers about their it­in­er­ary and the reas­ons for leav­ing their coun­try.⁵⁴

^1bis SEM shall veri­fy its com­pet­ence to carry out the asylum pro­ced­ure, tak­ing ac­count of the pro­vi­sions of the Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments.⁵⁵

^1ter It shall au­thor­ise entry if Switzer­land is com­pet­ent to carry out the asylum pro­ced­ure in ac­cord­ance with Reg­u­la­tion (EU) No 604/2013⁵⁶ and the asylum seeker:⁵⁷

a.

ap­pears to be at risk for any of the grounds stated in Art­icle 3 para­graph 1 or un­der threat of in­hu­mane treat­ment in the coun­try from which they have dir­ectly ar­rived; or

b.

es­tab­lishes that the coun­try from which they have dir­ectly ar­rived would force them, in vi­ol­a­tion of the ban on re­foule­ment, to re­turn to a coun­try in which they ap­pear to be at risk.⁵⁸

² If, on the basis of the meas­ures in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 and the veri­fic­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1^bis, it is not im­me­di­ately pos­sible to de­term­ine wheth­er the re­quire­ments for an entry per­mit in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 1^ter are ful­filled, entry shall be tem­por­ar­ily denied.⁵⁹

^2bis In or­der to avoid cases of hard­ship, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may spe­cify the ad­di­tion­al cases in which entry will be au­thor­ised.⁶⁰

³ If SEM denies entry to asylum seekers, it shall provide them with a place of stay and ap­pro­pri­ate ac­com­mod­a­tion. It bears the cost of the ac­com­mod­a­tion. Air­port op­er­at­ors are re­spons­ible for provid­ing reas­on­ably priced ac­com­mod­a­tion.⁶¹

^3bis The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall guar­an­tee free coun­selling and leg­al rep­res­ent­a­tion to per­sons who sub­mit a re­quest for asylum at a Swiss air­port, ana­log­ously to the pro­vi­sions of Art­icles 102f–102k.⁶²

⁴ The asylum seeker must be in­formed about the de­cision on deni­al of entry and on the al­loc­a­tion of a place of stay with­in two days of fil­ing the ap­plic­a­tion and be no­ti­fied of their rights of ap­peal. Pri­or to this, the asylum seeker shall be gran­ted a hear­ing in ac­cord­ance with the law.⁶³

⁵ Asylum seekers may be held at the air­port or ex­cep­tion­ally at an­oth­er loc­a­tion for a max­im­um of 60 days. On the is­sue of a leg­ally bind­ing re­mov­al or­der, asylum seekers may be trans­ferred to a pris­on spe­cific­ally for de­portees.

⁶ SEM may there­after al­loc­ate asylum seekers to a can­ton or a fed­er­al centre. In all oth­er cases, the fur­ther pro­ced­ure at the air­port is reg­u­lated by Art­icles 23, 29, 36 and 37.⁶⁴

¹ If SEM does not grant entry in­to Switzer­land, it may dis­miss or re­ject the ap­plic­a­tion for asylum.⁶⁶

² No­ti­fic­a­tion must be giv­en of the de­cision with­in 20 days of the ap­plic­a­tion be­ing filed. If the pro­ced­ure lasts longer, SEM shall al­loc­ate the asylum seeker to a can­ton or a fed­er­al centre.⁶⁷

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall es­tab­lish centres, which are man­aged by SEM. The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall fol­low the prin­ciples of ex­pedi­ency and cost ef­fi­ciency.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall in­volve the can­tons and com­munes in es­tab­lish­ing the centres from an early stage.

³ Asylum seekers shall be ac­com­mod­ated in a fed­er­al centre from sub­mis­sion of a re­quest for asylum:

a.

un­der the ac­cel­er­ated pro­ced­ure, un­til they are gran­ted asylum or tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion, or un­til they leave the coun­try;

b.

un­der the Dub­lin pro­ced­ure, un­til they leave the coun­try;

c.

un­der the ex­ten­ded pro­ced­ure, un­til they are al­loc­ated to a can­ton.

⁴ The max­im­um dur­a­tion of stay in fed­er­al centres is 140 days. Al­loc­a­tion to a can­ton shall take place after this peri­od has elapsed.

⁵ A reas­on­able ex­ten­sion may be made to this peri­od if it al­lows the asylum pro­ced­ure to be con­cluded promptly or en­ables re­mov­al. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the de­tailed rules for ex­tend­ing a stay in fed­er­al centres bey­ond the end of this peri­od.

⁶ Al­loc­a­tion to a can­ton may take place be­fore the end of the peri­od, in par­tic­u­lar if there is a large and rap­id rise in the num­ber of asylum re­quests. Dis­tri­bu­tion and al­loc­a­tion are gov­erned by Art­icle 27.

¹ Asylum seekers who pose a sig­ni­fic­ant danger to pub­lic safety and or­der or who sig­ni­fic­antly dis­rupt the op­er­a­tion and se­cur­ity of fed­er­al centres shall be ac­com­mod­ated in spe­cial centres, which shall be es­tab­lished and man­aged by SEM or by can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies. A per­son ac­com­mod­ated in a spe­cial centre shall be is­sued with a re­stric­tion or ex­clu­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 74 para­graph 1^bis FNIA⁷¹; the pro­ced­ure is gov­erned by Art­icle 74 para­graphs 2 and 3 FNIA.

² Asylum seekers al­loc­ated to a can­ton may be ac­com­mod­ated un­der the same con­di­tions in the spe­cial centres. The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons shall share the costs pro­por­tion­ally to their use of the centres.

³ The same pro­ced­ures as in fed­er­al centres un­der Art­icle 24 may be car­ried out in spe­cial centres; an ex­cep­tion is the sub­mis­sion of a re­quest for asylum.

⁴ The hand­ling of re­quests for asylum by per­sons in spe­cial centres and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of any re­mov­al de­cisions shall be pri­or­it­ised.

¹ SEM may task third parties with en­sur­ing the safe op­er­a­tion of fed­er­al centres. These third parties shall be bound by the same con­fid­en­ti­al­ity re­quire­ment as fed­er­al per­son­nel.

² The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Justice and Po­lice (FD­JP) shall ad­opt pro­vi­sions which en­sure that pro­ced­ure is swift and the op­er­a­tion is or­derly in the fed­er­al centres.

¹ Fed­er­al mil­it­ary build­ings and in­stall­a­tions may be used without can­ton­al or com­mun­al au­thor­isa­tion to ac­com­mod­ate asylum seekers for a max­im­um of three years provided the change in use does not re­quire sub­stan­tial struc­tur­al meas­ures and there is no sig­ni­fic­ant change in the oc­cu­pancy of the in­stall­a­tion or build­ing.

² The fol­low­ing in par­tic­u­lar do not con­sti­tute sub­stan­tial struc­tur­al meas­ures with­in the mean­ing of para­graph 1:

a.

nor­mal main­ten­ance work on build­ings and in­stall­a­tions;

b.

minor struc­tur­al al­ter­a­tions;

c.

the in­stall­a­tion of equip­ment of sec­ond­ary im­port­ance such as san­it­ary fa­cil­it­ies or wa­ter and elec­tri­city con­nec­tions;

d.

mov­able struc­tures.

³ The same build­ings or in­stall­a­tions in terms of para­graph 1 may only be used again after a peri­od of two years has elapsed, un­less the can­ton and the com­mune con­cerned agree to dis­pense with this peri­od; the ex­cep­tions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 55 are re­served.

⁴ After con­sult­ing the can­ton and com­mune con­cerned, the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall give no­tice to them of any change in use at the latest 60 days be­fore the ac­com­mod­a­tion comes in­to op­er­a­tion.

¹ Asylum seekers may be ac­com­mod­ated in a centre run by a can­ton or com­mune if there are not suf­fi­cient places in the fed­er­al centres un­der Art­icle 24. The agree­ment of the can­ton con­cerned is re­quired for ac­com­mod­at­ing asylum seekers in a com­mun­al centre.

² The can­ton or the com­mune con­cerned:

a.

shall en­sure suit­able ac­com­mod­a­tion, care and activ­it­ies for the asylum seekers;

b.

shall provide so­cial as­sist­ance or emer­gency aid;

c.

shall provide med­ic­al care and primary school edu­ca­tion for chil­dren;

d.

shall take the se­cur­ity meas­ures ne­ces­sary to en­sure or­derly op­er­a­tion.

³ The can­ton or the com­mune con­cerned may del­eg­ate the tasks lis­ted in para­graph 2 to third parties, either par­tially or in full.

⁴ The pro­vi­sion of so­cial as­sist­ance and emer­gency aid is gov­erned by can­ton­al law.

⁵ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall make fed­er­al con­tri­bu­tions by agree­ment to the can­ton or com­mune con­cerned to com­pensate for the ad­min­is­trat­ive, staff and oth­er costs which arise from ful­filling the tasks lis­ted in para­graph 2. The com­pens­a­tion shall be fixed as a lump sum. In ex­cep­tion­al cases, the con­tri­bu­tions may be fixed on the basis of ex­pendit­ure, es­pe­cially in the case of non-re­cur­ring costs.

⁶ The oth­er pro­vi­sions con­cern­ing fed­er­al centres ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to can­ton­al and com­mun­al centres. In the centres defined in para­graph 1, the same pro­ced­ures may be car­ried out as in fed­er­al centres as defined in Art­icle 24.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons shall take meas­ures to re­spond promptly to changes in the num­ber of re­quests for asylum with the re­sources re­quired, in par­tic­u­lar re­gard­ing ac­com­mod­a­tion, staff and fin­ance, or with fur­ther meas­ures.

¹ After the ap­plic­a­tion for asylum has been filed, the pre­par­at­ory phase be­gins. Un­der the Dub­lin pro­ced­ure, it lasts no more than 10 days, and un­der oth­er pro­ced­ures no more than 21 days.

² In the pre­par­at­ory phase, SEM re­cords the asylum seekers’ per­son­al de­tails and nor­mally takes their fin­ger­prints and pho­to­graphs. It may col­lect ad­di­tion­al bio­met­ric data, pre­pare re­ports on a per­son's age (Art. 17 para. 3^bis), veri­fy evid­ence and travel and iden­tity doc­u­ments and make en­quir­ies spe­cif­ic to ori­gin and iden­tity.

³ SEM shall in­form asylum seekers of their rights and ob­lig­a­tions in the asylum pro­ced­ure. It may ques­tion the asylum seekers about their iden­tity and their it­in­er­ary, and sum­mar­ily about the reas­ons for leav­ing their coun­try. At this point, SEM may also ask about any com­mer­cial hu­man traf­fick­ing. It shall dis­cuss with the asylum seeker wheth­er there is suf­fi­cient jus­ti­fic­a­tion for their re­quest for asylum. If this is not the case and if the asylum seeker with­draws the re­quest, the re­quest shall be can­celled without a form­al de­cision be­ing taken and pre­par­a­tions made for the re­turn jour­ney.

⁴ The com­par­is­on of data un­der Art­icle 102a^bis para­graphs 2–3, the ex­am­in­a­tion of fin­ger­prints un­der Art­icle 102a^ter para­graph 1 and the re­quest for ad­mis­sion or read­mis­sion to the com­pet­ent state bound by one of the Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments is made dur­ing the pre­par­at­ory phase.

⁵ SEM may del­eg­ate the tasks un­der para­graph 2 to third parties. Third parties are sub­ject to the same duty of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity as fed­er­al per­son­nel.

¹ Im­me­di­ately after fil­ing their ap­plic­a­tion, but at the latest at the in­ter­view on the grounds for asylum un­der Art­icle 36 para­graph 2 or be­ing gran­ted a hear­ing un­der Art­icle 36 para­graph 1, asylum seekers must state any ser­i­ous health prob­lems of rel­ev­ance to the asylum and re­mov­al pro­ced­ures of which they were aware when fil­ing the ap­plic­a­tion for asylum.

² SEM ap­points a com­pet­ent med­ic­al spe­cial­ist to in­vest­ig­ate mat­ters con­ten­ded un­der para­graph 1. Art­icle 82a ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis. SEM may del­eg­ate the re­quired med­ic­al du­ties to a third party.

³ Med­ic­al prob­lems that are claimed later or es­tab­lished by an­oth­er med­ic­al spe­cial­ist may be taken in­to ac­count in the asylum and re­mov­al pro­ced­ures if they are proven. The pro­vi­sion of prima facie evid­ence suf­fices by way of ex­cep­tion if there are ex­cus­able grounds for the delay or proof can­not be provided in the case in ques­tion for med­ic­al reas­ons. SEM may call in an in­de­pend­ent med­ic­al ex­am­iner.

The pro­ced­ure with view to a de­cision un­der Art­icle 31a para­graph 1 let­ter b be­gins with sub­mis­sion of a re­quest to a Dub­lin state for the ad­mis­sion or read­mis­sion of the asylum seeker. It lasts un­til the asylum seeker is trans­ferred to the Dub­lin state re­spons­ible or un­til it is ter­min­ated and a de­cision is taken about im­ple­ment­ing an ac­cel­er­ated or ex­ten­ded pro­ced­ure.

After the preparatory phase, the accelerated procedure shall commence immediately with an interview on the grounds for asylum or the granting of a hearing under Article 36. The Federal Council shall lay down the individual steps of the procedure.

If it is clear after the in­ter­view on the grounds for asylum that a de­cision can­not be made un­der the ac­cel­er­ated pro­ced­ure, namely be­cause fur­ther in­vest­ig­a­tion is re­quired, the asylum seeker shall be as­signed to the ex­ten­ded pro­ced­ure and be al­loc­ated to a can­ton un­der Art­icle 27.

¹ The can­tons shall reach an agree­ment on the dis­tri­bu­tion of asylum seekers.

^1bisThe spe­cial ser­vices provided by can­tons where fed­er­al centres or air­ports are loc­ated shall be ap­pro­pri­ately taken in­to ac­count in the dis­tri­bu­tion of asylum seekers.⁸⁴

² If the can­tons can­not reach an agree­ment, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall, after hear­ing them, set out the cri­ter­ia for dis­tri­bu­tion in an or­din­ance.

³ SEM shall al­loc­ate asylum seekers to the can­tons (can­tons of al­loc­a­tion).⁸⁵ In do­ing so, it shall take ac­count of the in­terests of the can­tons and of the asylum seekers that are worthy of pro­tec­tion. Asylum seekers may only con­test the de­cision on al­loc­a­tion if it vi­ol­ates the prin­ciple of fam­ily unity.

⁴ Per­sons whose re­mov­al has been ordered and in re­spect of whom a de­cision on asylum has be­come leg­ally bind­ing in a fed­er­al centre or whose re­quest for asylum was can­celled in a fed­er­al centre⁸⁶ shall not be al­loc­ated to a can­ton.

¹ SEM or the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies may al­loc­ate asylum seekers to a place of stay.

² They may al­loc­ate asylum seekers ac­com­mod­a­tion, and in par­tic­u­lar ac­com­mod­ate them as a group. The can­tons shall en­sure that this pro­ced­ure is op­er­ated ef­fi­ciently; they may lay down pro­vi­sions and take meas­ures.⁸⁷

¹ SEM shall in­ter­view asylum seekers on their grounds for asylum; the in­ter­view shall take place in a fed­er­al centre.

^1bis If ne­ces­sary, it shall call in an in­ter­pret­er.

² The asylum seekers may be ac­com­pan­ied ad­di­tion­ally at their own ex­pense a per­son and an in­ter­pret­er of their choice who are not them­selves asylum seekers.

³ Minutes shall be taken of the in­ter­view. They shall be signed by those par­ti­cip­at­ing in the in­ter­view.

¹ Be­fore and dur­ing their con­trac­tu­al re­la­tion­ship, SEM may have interpreters and translators assessed with regard to their trustworthiness.

² The trustworthiness assessments shall be carried out by the PSS specialist units under Article 31 paragraph 2 of the Information Security Act of 18 December 2020⁹⁰(ISA). The procedure is governed mutatis mutandis by the provisions of the ISA on basic security screening.

³ If the interpreters or translators undergo personnel security screening in accordance with the ISA at the same time, both procedures shall be combined.

⁴ SEM shall bear the costs of the trustworthiness assessments.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may enter in­to agree­ments with third coun­tries and in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions on co­oper­a­tion in es­tab­lish­ing the cir­cum­stances of cases. It may in par­tic­u­lar enter in­to agree­ments on a mu­tu­al ex­change of in­form­a­tion in or­der to es­tab­lish the motives for seek­ing asylum of an asylum seeker in his or her nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin, his or her it­in­er­ary and his or her stay in a third coun­try.

The FD­JP may with the con­sent of the can­tons de­term­ine that can­ton­al of­fi­cials pre­pare the de­cisions on be­half of and un­der the su­per­vi­sion of SEM.

¹ SEM shall nor­mally dis­miss an ap­plic­a­tion for asylum if the asylum seeker:

a.

can re­turn to a safe third coun­try un­der Art­icle 6a para­graph 2 let­ter b in which he or she was pre­vi­ously res­id­ent:

b.

can travel to a third coun­try that is re­spons­ible un­der an in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ment for con­duct­ing the asylum and re­mov­al pro­ced­ures;

c.

can re­turn to a third coun­try in which he or she was pre­vi­ously res­id­ent;

d.

can con­tin­ue to a third coun­try for which he or she holds a visa and in which he or she can seek pro­tec­tion;

e.

can con­tin­ue to a third coun­try in which per­sons with whom he or she has a close re­la­tion­ship or de­pend­ants live;

f.⁹⁵

can be re­moved to their nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin un­der Art­icle 31b.

² Para­graph 1 let­ters c–e do not ap­ply if there are in­dic­a­tions in the case in ques­tion that the third coun­try does not provide ef­fect­ive pro­tec­tion against re­foule­ment in terms of Art­icle 5 para­graph 1.

³ SEM shall dis­miss an ap­plic­a­tion that fails to meet the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 18. This ap­plies in par­tic­u­lar if the ap­plic­a­tion for asylum is made ex­clus­ively for eco­nom­ic or med­ic­al reas­ons.

⁴ In the oth­er cases, SEM shall re­ject the ap­plic­a­tion for asylum if refugee status has neither been proven nor cred­ibly demon­strated or there are grounds for deny­ing asylum un­der Art­icles 53 and 54.⁹⁶

¹ An asylum seeker in re­spect of whom a neg­at­ive asylum de­cision and a leg­ally bind­ing re­mov­al de­cision has been is­sued in a state that is bound by one of the Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments (Dub­lin State) may be re­moved dir­ectly to their nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin in ac­cord­ance with the re­quire­ments of Dir­ect­ive 2001/40/EC⁹⁸ if:

a.

the com­pet­ent Dub­lin State has not ex­ecuted any re­movals to the asylum seeker’s nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin for a long peri­od; and

b.

it is likely that re­mov­al from Switzer­land can be ex­ecuted quickly.

² SEM shall ob­tain the in­form­a­tion re­quired to ex­ecute the re­mov­al from the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies of the Dub­lin State con­cerned and make the ne­ces­sary ar­range­ments.

If Switzer­land is re­spons­ible for as­sess­ing an asylum ap­plic­a­tion on the basis of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) No 604/2013¹⁰¹, the asylum pro­ceed­ings shall be re­sumed, even if the asylum ap­plic­a­tion had pre­vi­ously been dis­missed.

¹ If it is de­cided to dis­miss an ap­plic­a­tion un­der Art­icle 31a para­graph 1, the asylum seeker is gran­ted a hear­ing. The same ap­plies if the asylum seeker:

a.

de­ceives the au­thor­it­ies as to his or her iden­tity and this de­cep­tion is con­firmed by the res­ults of the iden­ti­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ure or oth­er evid­ence;

b.

bases his or her ap­plic­a­tion primar­ily on forged or fals­i­fied evid­ence;

c.

ser­i­ously and culp­ably fails to co­oper­ate in some oth­er way.

² In the oth­er cases, an in­ter­view is held un­der Art­icle 29.

¹ No­tice of de­cisions un­der the Dub­lin pro­ced­ure (Art. 26b) must be giv­en with­in three work­ing days after the Dub­lin state to which the re­quest was dir­ec­ted has agreed to the trans­fer re­quest un­der Art­icles 21 and 23 of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) No 604/2013¹⁰⁴.

² No­tice of de­cisions un­der the ac­cel­er­ated pro­ced­ure (Art. 26c) must be giv­en with­in eight days of the con­clu­sion of the pre­par­at­ory phase.

³ If there are val­id reas­ons and it is fore­see­able that the de­cision can be taken in a fed­er­al centre, the time lim­its laid down in para­graphs 1 and 2 may be ex­ceeded by a few days.

⁴ De­cisions un­der the ex­ten­ded pro­ced­ure (Art. 26d) must be taken with­in two months of the con­clu­sion of the pre­par­at­ory phase.

⁵ In oth­er cases, de­cisions to dis­miss an ap­plic­a­tion must be made with­in five work­ing days and de­cisions must be made with­in ten work­ing days of the ap­plic­a­tion be­ing filed.

⁶ SEM shall de­cide as a pri­or­ity and im­me­di­ately if the per­son seek­ing asylum is in de­ten­tion pending ex­tra­di­tion on the basis of a re­quest by a state which the asylum seeker is seek­ing pro­tec­tion from in Switzer­land. This also ap­plies when the per­son has been made sub­ject to an ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis of the Crim­in­al Code (SCC)¹⁰⁵ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis of the Mil­it­ary Crim­in­al Code of 13 June 1927¹⁰⁶ (MCC) or an ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 68 FNIA¹⁰⁷.¹⁰⁸

De­cisions to dis­miss an ap­plic­a­tion must be ac­com­pan­ied by a sum­mary state­ment of grounds.

SEM shall set out in a pro­cessing strategy which ap­plic­a­tions for asylum shall be pro­cessed as a pri­or­ity. In do­ing so, it shall pay par­tic­u­lar at­ten­tion to the stat­utory time lim­its, the situ­ation in the coun­tries of ori­gin, the evid­ent mer­its or oth­er­wise of the ap­plic­a­tions and the con­duct of the asylum seekers.

If, as a res­ult of ques­tion­ing at the fed­er­al centre or at the in­ter­view, it is ob­vi­ous that asylum seekers be­long to a group of per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 66, they shall be gran­ted tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion.

¹ If, as a res­ult of the in­ter­view, it is ob­vi­ous that asylum seekers are un­able to prove or cred­ibly demon­strate their refugee status and there are no grounds pre­vent­ing their re­mov­al, the ap­plic­a­tion shall be re­jec­ted without fur­ther in­vest­ig­a­tions.

² The de­cision must at least be sum­mar­ily sub­stan­ti­ated.¹¹³

If the per­son seek­ing asylum is the sub­ject of an ap­plic­a­tion for ex­tra­di­tion in ac­cord­ance with the Mu­tu­al As­sist­ance Act of 20 March 1981¹¹⁶, SEM shall con­sult the files on the ex­tra­di­tion pro­ceed­ings when de­cid­ing on the asylum ap­plic­a­tion.

Any per­son who ap­plies for asylum in Switzer­land may stay in Switzer­land un­til the con­clu­sion of the pro­ced­ure.

¹ While stay­ing in fed­er­al centres, asylum seekers may not be gain­fully em­ployed.¹¹⁸

^1bis The ad­di­tion­al re­quire­ments for au­thor­ising gain­ful em­ploy­ment are gov­erned by the Fed­er­al Act of 16 Decem­ber 2005¹¹⁹ on For­eign Na­tion­als (FNIA).¹²⁰

² If an ap­plic­a­tion for asylum is re­jec­ted in a leg­ally bind­ing de­cision, au­thor­isa­tion for gain­ful em­ploy­ment ex­pires on ex­piry of the peri­od spe­cified for de­par­ture, even if an ex­traordin­ary leg­al rem­edy has been ap­plied for and the en­force­ment of re­mov­al has been sus­pen­ded. If SEM ex­tends the de­par­ture peri­od as part of the or­din­ary pro­ced­ure, gain­ful em­ploy­ment may con­tin­ue to be au­thor­ised. Gain­ful em­ploy­ment may not be au­thor­ised dur­ing pro­ceed­ings un­der Art­icle 111c.¹²¹

³ The FD­JP may, in agree­ment with the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs, Edu­ca­tion and Re­search au­thor­ise the can­tons to ex­tend per­mits for cer­tain cat­egor­ies of per­sons to be gain­fully em­ployed bey­ond the ex­piry of the de­par­ture peri­od, provided spe­cial cir­cum­stances jus­ti­fy this. This also ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis to asylum pro­ceed­ings un­der Art­icle 111c.¹²²

^3bis The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may is­sue a tem­por­ary ban on em­ploy­ment for cer­tain groups of asylum seekers.¹²³

⁴ Asylum seekers who are en­titled to be gain­fully em­ployed in ac­cord­ance with the im­mig­ra­tion pro­vi­sions or who par­ti­cip­ate in oc­cu­pa­tion­al pro­grammes are not sub­ject to the ban on em­ploy­ment.¹²⁴

¹ If SEM re­jects or dis­misses the ap­plic­a­tion for asylum, it shall nor­mally or­der and en­force re­mov­al from Switzer­land; however, in do­ing so it shall take ac­count of the prin­ciple of fam­ily unity. In ad­di­tion, Art­icles 83 and 84 FNIA¹²⁷ ap­ply to the en­force­ment of the re­mov­al or­der.

¹ The re­mov­al or­der shall in­dic­ate:

a.¹³⁰

sub­ject to in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments, in par­tic­u­lar the Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments¹³¹, the ob­lig­a­tion of the asylum seeker to leave Switzer­land and the Schen­gen area and the ob­lig­a­tion to travel to the coun­try of ori­gin or to an­oth­er state out­side the Schen­gen area that will ac­cept the per­son con­cerned;

b.¹³²

sub­ject to in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments, in par­tic­u­lar the Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments, the time by which the asylum seeker must have left Switzer­land and the Schen­gen area; where tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion has been gran­ted, the de­par­ture date is de­term­ined when the de­cision is made to re­voke tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion;

c.¹³³

the co­er­cive meas­ures that may be ap­plied;

d.

if ap­plic­able, the des­ig­na­tion of the states to which the asylum seeker may not be re­turned;

e.

if ap­plic­able, the or­der­ing of an al­tern­at­ive meas­ure in­stead of en­for­cing the re­mov­al or­der;

f.

the des­ig­na­tion of the can­ton re­spons­ible for the en­force­ment of the re­mov­al or­der or the al­tern­at­ive meas­ure.

² On is­su­ing the re­mov­al or­der, an ap­pro­pri­ate de­par­ture peri­od of between sev­en and thirty days must be set. The peri­od is sev­en days in the case of de­cisions taken un­der the ac­cel­er­ated pro­ced­ure. Un­der the ex­ten­ded pro­ced­ure, the peri­od is between sev­en and thirty days.¹³⁴

^2bis A longer peri­od must be set or the de­par­ture peri­od ex­ten­ded if spe­cial cir­cum­stances such as the fam­ily situ­ation, health prob­lems or a long peri­od of stay so re­quire.¹³⁵

³ The re­mov­al or­der must be en­forced im­me­di­ately or a de­par­ture peri­od of less than sev­en days may be set where the per­son con­cerned is be­ing re­moved un­der the Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments.¹³⁶

⁴ The asylum seeker must be provided with an in­form­a­tion sheet with an ex­plan­a­tion of the re­mov­al or­der.¹³⁷

¹ The data on third-coun­try na­tion­als against whom a de­cision on re­turn in terms of Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC¹³⁹ has been is­sued in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 44 and 45 of this Acts shall be re­cor­ded by SEM in the Schen­gen In­form­a­tion Sys­tem (SIS).

² The re­mov­al of refugees shall be re­cor­ded in the SIS by the au­thor­ity that has is­sued the re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 64 or 68 FNIA¹⁴⁰.

³ Art­icles 68b–68eFNIA ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

¹ The can­ton of al­loc­a­tion is ob­liged to en­force the re­mov­al or­der.¹⁴¹

^1bis Dur­ing an asylum seeker’s stay in a fed­er­al centre, the can­ton re­spons­ible for en­for­cing the re­mov­al or­der is the can­ton where the centre is loc­ated. For per­sons defined un­der Art­icle 27 para­graph 4, the can­ton con­cerned re­mains re­spons­ible for en­for­cing the re­mov­al or­der even after the per­son’s stay in a fed­er­al centre. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may in spe­cial cir­cum­stances al­low for a can­ton oth­er than the can­ton con­cerned to be al­loc­ated this re­spons­ib­il­ity.¹⁴²

^1ter In the case of a mul­tiple re­quest un­der Art­icle 111c, the can­ton re­spons­ible un­der the pre­vi­ous asylum and re­mov­al pro­ced­ure re­mains re­spons­ible for re­mov­al and ad­min­is­ter­ing emer­gency care.¹⁴³

²If en­force­ment provides im­possible for tech­nic­al reas­ons, the can­ton shall ap­ply to SEM for a sys­tem for mon­it­or­ing the en­force­ment of re­mov­al.¹⁴⁴

³ SEM su­per­vises en­force­ment and, work­ing with the can­tons, shall es­tab­lish a sys­tem for mon­it­or­ing the en­force­ment of re­mov­al.¹⁴⁵

If asylum seekers sub­ject to a re­mov­al or­der avoid en­force­ment of the or­der by con­ceal­ing their place of stay, the can­ton or SEM may ar­range for their re­gis­tra­tion in the po­lice sys­tem for tra­cing miss­ing per­sons.

If asylum seekers are not loc­ated in the can­ton re­spons­ible for the en­for­cing the re­mov­al or­der, the can­ton of stay shall provide ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance on re­quest. Ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance in­cludes in par­tic­u­lar de­liv­er­ing the per­son con­cerned to the com­pet­ent can­ton or de­port­ing them dir­ectly.

Asylum is gran­ted to per­sons if they have refugee status and there are no grounds for deny­ing asylum.

Refugees who have been ad­mit­ted as such to an­oth­er state may be gran­ted asylum if they have resided in Switzer­land in a law-abid­ing man­ner and without in­ter­rup­tion for a min­im­um of two years.

¹ Spouses or re­gistered part­ners of refugees and their minor chil­dren shall be re­cog­nised as refugees and gran­ted asylum provided there are no spe­cial cir­cum­stances that pre­clude this.¹⁴⁶

^1bis If, dur­ing the asylum pro­ced­ure, SEM has reas­on to be­lieve that there are grounds un­der Art­icle 105 num­ber 5 or 6 of the Civil Code¹⁴⁷ (CC) for the mar­riage to be an­nulled, they shall re­port this to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity un­der Art­icle 106 CC. The pro­ced­ure shall be sus­pen­ded un­til this au­thor­ity makes its de­cision. If the au­thor­ity raises an ac­tion for an­nul­ment, the re­quest is sus­pen­ded un­til a leg­ally bind­ing judg­ment has been is­sued.¹⁴⁸

² ...¹⁴⁹

³ Chil­dren born in Switzer­land to refugee par­ents shall be re­cog­nised as refugees, provided if there are no spe­cial cir­cum­stances that pre­clude this.¹⁵⁰

⁴ If the per­sons en­titled un­der para­graphs 1 were sep­ar­ated dur­ing flight and are now abroad, their entry must be au­thor­ised on re­quest.¹⁵¹

⁵ ...¹⁵²

¹ ...¹⁵³

² ...¹⁵⁴

Refugees shall not be gran­ted asylum if:

a.

they are un­worthy of it due to ser­i­ous mis­con­duct;

b.

they have vi­ol­ated or en­danger Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity; or

c.

they have been made sub­ject to an ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC¹⁵⁶ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC¹⁵⁷.

Refugees shall not be gran­ted asylum if they be­came refugees in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 3 only by leav­ing their nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin or due to their con­duct after their de­par­ture.

¹ In times of in­creased in­ter­na­tion­al ten­sion, in the event of the out­break of an armed con­flict in which Switzer­land is not in­volved, or in the event of an ex­cep­tion­ally large in­flux of asylum seekers in times of peace, Switzer­land shall grant asylum to refugees as long as the cir­cum­stances per­mit.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall take the re­quired meas­ures. It may, in derog­a­tion from the law, re­strict the re­quire­ments for grant­ing asylum and the leg­al status of the refugees and is­sue spe­cial pro­ced­ur­al pro­vi­sions. It shall sub­mit a re­port on this to the Fed­er­al As­sembly im­me­di­ately.

³ If Switzer­land’s ca­pa­city to per­man­ently ac­com­mod­ate refugees is ex­ceeded, asylum may only be gran­ted tem­por­ar­ily un­til those ad­mit­ted are able to go else­where.

⁴ If it be­comes ap­par­ent that a con­sid­er­able num­ber of refugees are com­ing to Switzer­land, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall seek rap­id and ef­fect­ive in­ter­na­tion­al co­oper­a­tion with a view to their real­loc­a­tion to oth­er coun­tries.

¹ A Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­cision is re­quired for asylum to be gran­ted to large groups of refugees. The De­part­ment shall de­cide in the case of smal­ler groups of refugees.

² SEM shall de­term­ine who be­longs to such a group.

¹ For the al­loc­a­tion of the refugees to the can­tons, Art­icle 27 ap­plies.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion may in the in­terests of ini­tial in­teg­ra­tion tem­por­ar­ily al­loc­ate groups of refugees to ac­com­mod­a­tion and, in par­tic­u­lar house them in an ini­tial in­teg­ra­tion centre.

The leg­al status of refugees in Switzer­land is gov­erned by the law ap­plic­able to for­eign na­tion­als, un­less spe­cial pro­vi­sions, in par­tic­u­lar of this Act and of the Refugee Con­ven­tion of 28 Ju­ly 1951¹⁵⁸, ap­ply.

Per­sons to whom Switzer­land has gran­ted asylum or who ful­fil the re­quire­ments for refugee status are deemed in their re­la­tions with all fed­er­al and can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies to be refugees with­in the mean­ing of this Act and the Con­ven­tion of 28 Ju­ly 1951¹⁶⁰ re­lat­ing to the Status of Refugees.

¹ Per­sons to whom asylum has been gran­ted have the right to a res­id­ence per­mit in the can­ton in which they leg­ally stay.

² The grant­ing of a per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit is gov­erned by Art­icle 34 FNIA¹⁶².¹⁶³

¹ Per­sons to whom Switzer­land has gran­ted asylum or whom Switzer­land has tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted as refugees and refugees sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC¹⁶⁵ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC¹⁶⁶ or a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 68 FNIA¹⁶⁷ may be gain­fully em­ployed any­where in Switzer­land. In the case of salar­ied em­ploy­ment, the salary and em­ploy­ment con­di­tions cus­tom­ary for the loc­a­tion, pro­fes­sion and sec­tor must be com­plied with (Art.22 FNIA).¹⁶⁸

² The em­ploy­er must give no­tice of the start and end of salar­ied em­ploy­ment and any change of job to the can­ton­al au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for the place of work in ad­vance. In the case of self-em­ployed work, no­tice must be giv­en by the per­son con­cerned. The pro­ced­ure for giv­ing no­tice is gov­erned by Art­icle 85apara­graphs 2–6 FNIA.¹⁶⁹

³ Para­graph 2 does not ap­ply to re­cog­nised refugees who hold a per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit.

Per­sons to whom Switzer­land has gran­ted asylum shall be per­mit­ted to sit fed­er­al med­ic­al ex­am­in­a­tions; the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Home Af­fairs shall de­term­ine the re­quire­ments.

¹ SEM shall re­voke asylum or de­prive a per­son of refugee status:

a.

if the for­eign na­tion­al con­cerned has fraud­u­lently ob­tained asylum or refugee status by provid­ing false in­form­a­tion or by con­ceal­ing es­sen­tial facts;

b.

if any of the grounds stated in Art­icle 1 let­ter C num­bers 1–6 of the Refugee Con­ven­tion of 28 Ju­ly 1951¹⁷⁰ ap­ply.

^1bis It shall de­prive a per­son of refugee status if the refugee con­cerned travels to his or her nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin. It shall not de­prive a per­son of refugee status if the per­son con­cerned cred­ibly demon­strates that the jour­ney to his or her nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin was made un­der duress.¹⁷¹

² SEM shall re­voke asylum if a refugee:

a.

has vi­ol­ated or rep­res­ents a threat to Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity or has com­mit­ted a par­tic­u­larly ser­i­ous crim­in­al of­fence;

b.

has failed to com­ply with a travel ban un­der Art­icle 59c para­graph 1 second sen­tenceFNIA¹⁷².¹⁷³

³ The re­voc­a­tion of asylum or the depriva­tion of refugee status ap­plies in re­la­tion to all fed­er­al and can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies.

⁴ The re­voc­a­tion of asylum or the depriva­tion of refugee status does not ex­tend to the spouse or the chil­dren of the per­son con­cerned.¹⁷⁴

¹ Asylum in Switzer­land shall ex­pire if:

a.¹⁷⁵

the refugee has lived more than one year abroad;

b.

the refugee has been gran­ted asylum or per­mis­sion to stay per­man­ently in an­oth­er coun­try;

c.

the refugee re­nounces their refugee status;

d.¹⁷⁶

an or­der for re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion has been ex­ecuted;

e.¹⁷⁷

an ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC¹⁷⁸ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC¹⁷⁹ has be­come leg­ally en­force­able.

² SEM may ex­tend the dead­line in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 let­ter a un­der spe­cial cir­cum­stances.

³ Refugee status and asylum shall ex­pire if the for­eign na­tion­al ac­quires Swiss na­tion­al­ity in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 1 num­ber C let­ter 3 of the Refugee Con­ven­tion of 28 Ju­ly 1951¹⁸⁰.¹⁸¹

Refugees may be ex­pelled only if they en­danger Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity or have ser­i­ously vi­ol­ated pub­lic or­der, sub­ject to Art­icle 5. The re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion of refugees is gov­erned by Art­icle 64 FNIA¹⁸³ in con­junc­tion with Art­icle 63 para­graph 1 let­ter b and Art­icle 68 FNIA. Art­icle 5 is re­served.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­cide wheth­er and ac­cord­ing to which cri­ter­ia Switzer­land will grant tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion to groups of per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4.

² Be­fore do­ing so, it shall con­sult rep­res­ent­at­ives of the can­tons, the char­it­able or­gan­isa­tions and if need be ad­di­tion­al non-gov­ern­ment­al or­gan­isa­tions as well as the Of­fice of the United Na­tions High Com­mis­sion­er for Refugees.

¹ The grant­ing of tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion as well as meas­ures and as­sist­ance in the nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin or in the re­gion of ori­gin of the per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion should com­ple­ment one an­oth­er as far as pos­sible.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall work with the nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin, oth­er host coun­tries and in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions to cre­ate the con­di­tions for the safe re­turn of the per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion.

¹ SEM shall define the group of per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion in de­tail and de­cide who will be gran­ted tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion in Switzer­land. In do­ing so, it shall take ac­count of the prin­ciple of fam­ily unity.

² The de­cision on grant­ing tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion may only con­tested on the grounds that it vi­ol­ates the prin­ciple of fam­ily unity.

³ ...¹⁸⁴

¹ Art­icles 18 and 19 and 21–23 ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to ap­plic­a­tions filed at the bor­der or in Switzer­land by per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion.¹⁸⁵

² If there is no ob­vi­ous per­se­cu­tion in terms of Art­icle3, SEM shall, fol­low­ing ques­tion­ing at the fed­er­al centre in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 26, de­term­ine who be­longs to a group of per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion and who will be gran­ted tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion in Switzer­land. There is no ap­peal against the de­cision on wheth­er to grant tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion.

³ If a per­son is gran­ted tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion, the pro­ced­ure for any ap­plic­a­tion for re­cog­ni­tion as a refugee shall be sus­pen­ded.

⁴ If SEM in­tends to re­fuse tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion, it shall con­tin­ue the pro­ced­ure for re­cog­ni­tion as a refugee or the re­mov­al pro­ceed­ings im­me­di­ately.

Per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion who have filed an ap­plic­a­tion for re­cog­ni­tion as a refugee may re­quest the re­sump­tion of the pro­ced­ure for re­cog­ni­tion as a refugee at the earli­est five years fol­low­ing the de­cision to sus­pend the pro­ced­ure in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 69 para­graph 3. On the re­sump­tion of this pro­ced­ure, tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion shall be re­voked.

¹ Spouses of per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion and their minor chil­dren shall be gran­ted tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion if:¹⁸⁶

a.

they ap­ply for pro­tec­tion to­geth­er and there are no grounds for re­jec­tion in terms of Art­icle 73;

b.

the fam­ily was sep­ar­ated by events such as those cited in Art­icle 4, wishes to be re­united in Switzer­land and there are no spe­cial cir­cum­stances that pre­clude this.

^1bis If, dur­ing the pro­ced­ure to grant tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion, SEM has reas­on to be­lieve that there are grounds un­der Art­icle 105 num­ber 5 or 6 CC¹⁸⁷ for the mar­riage to be an­nulled, they shall re­port this to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity un­der Art­icle 106 CC. The re­quest for re­uni­fic­a­tion shall be sus­pen­ded un­til this au­thor­ity makes its de­cision. If the au­thor­ity raises an ac­tion for an­nul­ment, the re­quest is sus­pen­ded un­til a leg­ally bind­ing judg­ment has been is­sued.¹⁸⁸

² Chil­dren born in Switzer­land to per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion shall also be gran­ted tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion.

³ If the per­sons en­titled to pro­tec­tion are abroad, their entry must be au­thor­ised.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the re­quire­ments for fam­ily re­union in Switzer­land in oth­er cases.

In ad­di­tion, the pro­vi­sions of Sec­tions 1, 2a and 3 of Chapter 2 ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to the pro­ced­ure in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 68, 69 and 71. The pro­vi­sions of Chapter 8 ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to the pro­ced­ures laid down in Art­icles 69 and 71.

Tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion shall not be gran­ted if the per­son in need of pro­tec­tion:

a.

has com­mit­ted an act fall­ing with­in the terms of Art­icle53;

b.

has vi­ol­ated or is a ser­i­ous threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity; or

c.

is sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC¹⁹¹ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC¹⁹².

¹ Per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion shall reside in the can­ton to which they have been al­loc­ated.

² If the fed­er­al coun­cil has not yet re­voked tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion with­in five years, the per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion shall re­ceive from this can­ton a res­id­ence per­mit lim­ited un­til the re­voc­a­tion of tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion.

³ Ten years after the grant­ing of tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion, the can­ton may grant per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion a per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit.

¹ For the first three months after entry in­to Switzer­land, per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion may not be gain­fully em­ployed. There­after, the re­quire­ments for au­thor­ising gain­ful em­ploy­ment are gov­erned by the FNIA¹⁹³.¹⁹⁴

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may stip­u­late more fa­vour­able con­di­tions for gain­ful em­ploy­ment.

³ Work per­mits already is­sued shall re­main val­id.

⁴ Per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion who are en­titled to be gain­fully em­ployed in ac­cord­ance with pro­vi­sions laid down by the im­mig­ra­tion au­thor­it­ies or who par­ti­cip­ate in oc­cu­pa­tion­al pro­grammes are not sub­ject to the ban on em­ploy­ment.¹⁹⁵

¹ After con­sulta­tion with rep­res­ent­at­ives of the can­tons, the char­it­able or­gan­isa­tions and, if re­quired, oth­er non-gov­ern­ment­al or­gan­isa­tions, the Of­fice of the United High Com­mis­sion­er for Refugees as well as with in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine when the tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion for cer­tain groups of per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion will be with­drawn; it shall make the de­cision in a gen­er­al rul­ing.

² SEM shall grant the per­sons af­fected by the de­cision in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 the right to a hear­ing.

³ If as a res­ult of the hear­ing, in­dic­a­tions of per­se­cu­tion are re­vealed, an in­ter­view shall be held in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 29.¹⁹⁶

⁴ If, hav­ing been gran­ted the right to a hear­ing, the per­son con­cerned does not provide an opin­ion, SEM shall is­sue a re­mov­al or­der. For the en­force­ment of the re­mov­al or­der, Art­icles 10 para­graph 4 and 46–48 of this Act as well as Art­icle 71 of the FNIA¹⁹⁷ ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.¹⁹⁸

⁵ The pro­vi­sions of Sec­tion 1a. of Chapter 8 ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to para­graphs 2–4.¹⁹⁹

The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall sup­port in­ter­na­tion­al ef­forts to or­gan­ise the re­turn of per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion.

¹ SEM may re­voke tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion if:

a.

it has been fraud­u­lently ob­tained by provid­ing false in­form­a­tion or by con­ceal­ing es­sen­tial facts;

b.

the per­son in need of pro­tec­tion has vi­ol­ated or en­dangered Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity or is guilty of ser­i­ous mis­con­duct;

c.

since be­ing gran­ted tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion, the per­son in need of pro­tec­tion has resided re­peatedly or for an ex­ten­ded peri­od of time in their nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin;

d.

the per­son in need of pro­tec­tion has a leg­al right of res­id­ence in a third coun­try where they may re­turn.

² Tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion shall not be re­voked if the per­son in need of pro­tec­tion travels to their nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin with the con­sent of the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies.

³ The re­voc­a­tion of tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion does not ex­tend to the spouse and the chil­dren, un­less it is shown they are not in need of pro­tec­tion.²⁰⁰

⁴ If it is in­ten­ded to re­voke tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion, an in­ter­view shall nor­mally be held in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 29. The pro­vi­sions of sec­tion 1a. of Chapter 8 ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.²⁰¹

Tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion ex­pires if the per­son in need of pro­tec­tion:

a.

has trans­ferred the fo­cus of their liv­ing con­di­tions abroad;

b.

has re­nounced tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion;

c.

has re­ceived a per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit in ac­cord­ance with the FNIA²⁰³; or

d.²⁰⁴

is made sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC²⁰⁵ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC²⁰⁶or a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 68 FNIA²⁰⁷.

The pro­vi­sions of Chapters 3 and 4 on spouses ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to re­gistered part­ner­ships of same-sex couples.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall provide so­cial as­sist­ance or emer­gency aid to per­sons stay­ing in Switzer­land on the basis of this Act and who are ac­com­mod­ated in a fed­er­al centre or in an ini­tial in­teg­ra­tion centre for groups of refugees. It shall work with the can­ton con­cerned to en­sure that health-care and primary edu­ca­tion are provided. It may del­eg­ate these tasks en­tirely or in part to third parties. Art­icles 81–83a ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

² SEM shall re­im­burse third party con­tract­ors in re­spect of the ad­min­is­trat­ive and staff costs that they in­cur in ful­filling their tasks un­der para­graph 1. The pay­ments shall be de­term­ined at a flat rate. By way of ex­cep­tion, the pay­ments may be based on the ac­tu­al costs, in par­tic­u­larly when re­im­burs­ing in­di­vidu­al non-re­cur­ring costs.

³ SEM may ar­range with the can­ton con­cerned that it enter in­to a con­tract for com­puls­ory health in­sur­ance. SEM shall re­im­burse the costs of the health in­sur­ance premi­ums, de­duct­ible and fran­chise.

⁴ The can­ton con­cerned shall or­gan­ise primary edu­ca­tion for asylum seekers of school age who are ac­com­mod­ated in a fed­er­al centre. The les­sons shall be provided in the centres as re­quired. The Con­fed­er­a­tion may sub­sid­ise the pro­vi­sion of primary school edu­ca­tion. The pay­ments shall be de­term­ined at a flat rate. By way of ex­cep­tion, the pay­ments may be based on the ac­tu­al costs, in par­tic­u­larly when re­im­burs­ing in­di­vidu­al non-re­cur­ring costs.

The can­tons of al­loc­a­tion shall provide so­cial as­sist­ance or emer­gency aid for per­sons stay­ing in Switzer­land on the basis of this Act. Per­sons who have not been al­loc­ated to a can­ton shall be gran­ted emer­gency aid by the can­ton that has been des­ig­nated re­spons­ible for en­for­cing re­mov­al. The can­tons may del­eg­ate the ful­fil­ment of these tasks en­tirely or in part to third parties.

Per­sons who are stay­ing in Switzer­land on the basis of this Act and who are un­able to main­tain them­selves from their own re­sources shall re­ceive the ne­ces­sary so­cial as­sist­ance be­ne­fits un­less third parties are re­quired to sup­port them on the basis of a stat­utory or con­trac­tu­al ob­lig­a­tion, or may re­quest emer­gency aid.

¹ The pay­ment of so­cial as­sist­ance be­ne­fits and emer­gency aid is reg­u­lated by can­ton­al law. Per­sons sub­ject to a leg­ally bind­ing re­mov­al de­cision for which a de­par­ture peri­od has been fixed are ex­cluded from re­ceiv­ing so­cial as­sist­ance.²¹⁵

² For the dur­a­tion of an ex­traordin­ary ap­peal or of asylum pro­ceed­ings un­der Art­icle 111c, per­sons un­der para­graph 1 and asylum seekers shall on ap­plic­a­tion re­ceive emer­gency aid. This is also the case if en­force­ment of the re­mov­al or­der is sus­pen­ded.²¹⁶

^2bis The can­tons may pay so­cial as­sist­ance be­ne­fits to per­sons un­der para­graphs 1 and 2 for the dur­a­tion of a gen­er­al morator­i­um on de­cision-mak­ing and en­force­ment and if the FD­JP so provides. Pay­ments are gov­erned by Art­icle 88 para­graph 2.²¹⁷

³ For asylum seekers and per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion who do not hold a res­id­ence per­mit, sup­port shall be provided in the form of non-cash be­ne­fits wherever pos­sible. The level of sup­port is less than that giv­en to the loc­al pop­u­la­tion.²¹⁸

^3bis The par­tic­u­lar needs of un­ac­com­pan­ied minor asylum seekers, fam­il­ies with chil­dren and per­sons re­quir­ing care must be met if pos­sible when provid­ing ac­com­mod­a­tion.²¹⁹

⁴ Emer­gency aid must wherever pos­sible be provided in the form of non-cash be­ne­fits at the loc­a­tions in­dic­ated by the can­tons or the Con­fed­er­a­tion. The level of sup­port is less than that of the so­cial as­sist­ance paid to asylum seekers and per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion who do not have a res­id­ence per­mit.²²⁰

⁵ The spe­cial situ­ation of refugees and per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion who have a right to a res­id­ence per­mit must be taken in­to ac­count in de­term­in­ing the level of sup­port; in par­tic­u­lar pro­fes­sion­al, so­cial and cul­tur­al in­teg­ra­tion shall be fa­cil­it­ated.

¹ Health in­sur­ance for asylum seekers and per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion without a res­id­ence per­mit must be ar­ranged in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act of 18 March 1994²²² on Health In­sur­ance (HIA), sub­ject to the fol­low­ing pro­vi­sions.

² The can­tons may lim­it the choice of in­surers for asylum seekers and per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion without a res­id­ence per­mit and may spe­cify one or more in­surers who of­fer a spe­cial form of in­sur­ance in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 41 para­graph 4 HIA.

³ They may lim­it the choice of ser­vice pro­viders for asylum seekers and per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion without a res­id­ence per­mit in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 36–40 HIA. They may do this be­fore des­ig­nat­ing an in­surer in terms of para­graph 2.

⁴ They may lim­it the choice for asylum seekers and per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion without a res­id­ence per­mit des­ig­nate to one or more in­surers who of­fer in­sur­ance with a lim­ited se­lec­tion of ser­vice pro­viders in terms of Art­icle 41 para­graph 4 HIA.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails of the lim­it­a­tion of the choice of the ser­vice pro­viders.

⁶ The can­tons and the in­surers may agree to dis­pense with cost shar­ing in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 64 para­graph 2 HIA.

⁷ As long as asylum seekers and per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion without a res­id­ence per­mit are re­li­ant solely or partly on so­cial as­sist­ance, their right to premi­um re­duc­tions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 65 HIA shall be sus­pen­ded. This right shall re­vive re­spect­ively when the asylum seekers are re­cog­nised as refugees, the per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion are en­titled to a res­id­ence per­mit, or the per­sons are no longer in re­ceipt of so­cial as­sist­ance.

¹ So­cial be­ne­fits or re­duced be­ne­fits un­der Art­icle 82 para­graph 3 must be com­pletely or par­tially re­fused, re­duced or with­drawn if the be­ne­fi­ciary:²²⁴

a.

has ob­tained them or at­temp­ted to ob­tain them by provid­ing un­true or in­com­plete in­form­a­tion;

b.

re­fuses to give the com­pet­ent of­fice in­form­a­tion about their fin­an­cial cir­cum­stances, or fails to au­thor­ise the of­fice to ob­tain this in­form­a­tion;

c.

does not re­port im­port­ant changes in their cir­cum­stances;

d.

ob­vi­ously neg­lects to im­prove their situ­ation, in par­tic­u­lar by re­fus­ing to ac­cept reas­on­able work or ac­com­mod­a­tion al­loc­ated to them;

e.

without con­sult­ing the com­pet­ent of­fice, ter­min­ates an em­ploy­ment con­tract or lease or is re­spons­ible for its ter­min­a­tion and thereby ex­acer­bates their situ­ation;

f.

uses so­cial as­sist­ance be­ne­fits im­prop­erly;

g.

fails to com­ply with the in­struc­tions of the com­pet­ent of­fice des­pite the threat of the with­draw­al of so­cial as­sist­ance be­ne­fits.

h.²²⁵

en­dangers pub­lic se­cur­ity or or­der;

i.²²⁶

has been pro­sec­uted or con­victed of a crime;

j.²²⁷

ser­i­ously and culp­ably fails to co­oper­ate, in par­tic­u­lar by re­fus­ing to dis­close their iden­tity;

k.²²⁸

fails to com­ply with the in­struc­tions from staff re­spons­ible for the pro­ceed­ings or from the ac­com­mod­a­tion fa­cil­it­ies, thereby en­dan­ger­ing or­der and se­cur­ity.

^1bis Para­graph 1 only ap­plies to refugees sub­ject to the guar­an­tee that they are treated the same way as the loc­al pop­u­la­tion.²²⁹

² So­cial be­ne­fits un­law­fully re­ceived must be paid back in full. The amount due for re­pay­ment may in par­tic­u­lar be de­duc­ted from fu­ture so­cial as­sist­ance be­ne­fits. The can­ton shall im­ple­ment the claim for re­pay­ment. Art­icle 85 para­graph 3 ap­plies.²³⁰

The per­son con­cerned must co­oper­ate in the en­force­ment of a leg­ally bind­ing re­mov­al or­der that is law­ful, reas­on­able and feas­ible as well as in the de­term­in­a­tion of wheth­er the re­quire­ments for emer­gency aid are ful­filled.

Child al­low­ances for asylum seekers' chil­dren liv­ing abroad shall be with­held dur­ing asylum pro­ced­ures. They shall be paid when the asylum seeker is re­cog­nised as a refugee or tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 83 para­graphs 3 and 4 of the FNIA²³³.

¹ As far as it is reas­on­able, so­cial as­sist­ance, emer­gency aid, de­par­ture and en­force­ment costs as well as the costs of the ap­peal pro­ced­ure must be re­im­bursed.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall en­force the claim for re­im­burse­ment by means of a spe­cial charge on as­sets (Art. 86).

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion’s right to re­im­burse­ment pre­scribes three years after the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity has been in­formed, but in any case ten years after the right is cre­ated.²³⁵ No in­terest is charged on re­im­burse­ment claims.

⁴ The can­ton’s right to re­im­burse­ment is gov­erned by can­ton­al law.

¹ Asylum seekers, per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion without a res­id­ence per­mit and per­sons sub­ject to a leg­ally bind­ing re­mov­al or­der who have as­sets at their dis­pos­al are li­able to pay the spe­cial charge. The spe­cial charge serves to cov­er the over­all costs in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 85 para­graph 1 gen­er­ated by all these per­sons and their de­pend­ents.

² The spe­cial charge is levied by con­fis­cat­ing as­sets.

³ The com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies may only levy the spe­cial charge if the per­sons con­cerned:

a.

are un­able to prove that the as­sets de­rive from earned in­come or com­pens­a­tion for loss of earned in­come or from pub­lic so­cial as­sist­ance be­ne­fits;

b.

are un­able to prove the ori­gin of the as­sets; or

c.

are able prove the ori­gin of the as­sets, but these ex­ceed the amount de­term­ined by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

⁴ The ob­lig­a­tion to pay the spe­cial charge con­tin­ues to ap­ply for a max­im­um of ten years after fil­ing the ap­plic­a­tion for asylum or the ap­plic­a­tion for tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the amount of the spe­cial charge and dur­a­tion of the ob­lig­a­tion to pay.

¹ Asylum seekers, per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion who do not have a res­id­ence per­mit and per­sons sub­ject to a leg­ally bind­ing re­mov­al or­der must dis­close any as­sets that they have that do not de­rive from earned in­come.

² Con­fis­cated as­sets shall be re­im­bursed in full on re­quest if the per­son con­cerned leaves the coun­try un­der su­per­vi­sion with­in sev­en months of fil­ing the ap­plic­a­tion for asylum or the ap­plic­a­tion for tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion. The re­quest for re­im­burse­ment must be made be­fore de­par­ture.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall com­pensate the can­tons for the costs of im­ple­ment­ing this Act by means of flat-rate pay­ments. The can­tons do not re­ceive the sub­sidies in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 91–93b.²³⁹

² The flat-rate pay­ments made in re­spect of per­sons seek­ing asylum and in need of pro­tec­tion without a res­id­ence per­mit shall cov­er, in par­tic­u­lar, the costs of so­cial as­sist­ance and of man­dat­ory health in­sur­ance and also con­tain a con­tri­bu­tion to­wards the su­per­vi­sion costs.

³ The flat-rate pay­ments made in re­spect of refugees and per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion with a res­id­ence per­mit and refugees sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC²⁴⁰ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC²⁴¹ or a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 68 FNIA²⁴² shall cov­er, in par­tic­u­lar, the costs of so­cial as­sist­ance and also con­tain a con­tri­bu­tion to­wards the su­per­vi­sion and ad­min­is­trat­ive costs.²⁴³ They shall be made for a max­im­um of five years from the date of sub­mis­sion of the asylum ap­plic­a­tion.²⁴⁴

^3bis The Con­fed­er­a­tion may make flat-rate pay­ments un­der para­graph 3 for longer than five years in re­spect of per­sons ad­mit­ted to Switzer­land un­der asylum gran­ted to groups of refugees, and in par­tic­u­lar when these per­sons are dis­abled or eld­erly.²⁴⁵

⁴ Pay­ments made in re­spect of per­sons who are only en­titled to emer­gency aid un­der Art­icle 82 are com­pens­a­tion for grant­ing emer­gency aid.²⁴⁶

⁵ ...²⁴⁷

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the level of the flat-rate pay­ments based on the prob­able ex­pendit­ures on cost-ef­fect­ive solu­tions.

² It shall de­term­ine the struc­ture and the dur­a­tion of the flat-rate pay­ments as well as the ne­ces­sary re­quire­ments. It may in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

de­term­ine the flat-rate pay­ments on the basis of res­id­ence status and the dur­a­tion of res­id­ence;

b.

ad­just the flat-rate pay­ments to take ac­count of the cost dif­fer­ences between the can­tons.

³ SEM may make the dis­burse­ment of in­di­vidu­al com­pon­ents of the flat-rate pay­ments sub­ject to the achieve­ment of so­cio-polit­ic­al goals.

⁴ The flat-rate pay­ments shall be peri­od­ic­ally ad­jus­ted in line with in­fla­tion and re­viewed if ne­ces­sary.

¹ SEM may re­quire the can­tons to col­lect the data re­quired for fin­an­cial su­per­vi­sion, de­term­in­ing and ad­just­ing the fin­an­cial com­pens­at­ory pay­ments from the Con­fed­er­a­tion un­der Art­icles 88 and 91 para­graph 2^bis of this Act and 58 and 87 FNIA²⁵⁰ and to make it avail­able to SEM or re­cord it in SEM's Cent­ral Mi­gra­tion In­form­a­tion Sys­tem (ZEMIS).²⁵¹

² If a can­ton fails to com­ply with this re­quire­ment, SEM may re­duce the fin­an­cial com­pens­at­ory pay­ments made to this can­ton or de­term­ine the pay­ments due on the basis of the data avail­able.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may claim back flat-rate com­pens­at­ory pay­ments already made un­der Art­icle 88 of this Act and un­der Art­icles 58 and 87 FNIA²⁵³ if a can­ton fails to carry out the en­force­ment tasks in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 46 of this Act or car­ries out such tasks in­ad­equately without ex­cuse.

² If the non-ful­fil­ment or in­ad­equate ful­fil­ment of en­force­ment tasks in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 46 leads to the per­son con­cerned stay­ing longer in Switzer­land, the Con­fed­er­a­tion may de­cline to make flat-rate com­pens­at­ory pay­ments un­der Art­icle 88 of this Act and un­der Art­icles 58 and 87 FNIA in re­spect of the re­lated costs in­curred by the can­ton.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may fin­ance, in full or in part, the con­struc­tion, con­ver­sion and fur­nish­ing of col­lect­ive ac­com­mod­a­tion in which the au­thor­it­ies place per­sons resid­ing in Switzer­land on the basis of this Act.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the pro­ced­ure, de­term­ine the de­tails on own­er­ship and en­sure the ac­com­mod­a­tion is used for its in­ten­ded pur­pose.

³ It shall de­term­ine the ex­tent to which the amount spent on dir­ect fund­ing by the Con­fed­er­a­tion on ac­com­mod­a­tion is charged against the flat-rate pay­ment.

¹and ²...²⁵⁴

^2bis The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall pay the can­tons a flat-rate sub­sidy to­wards the ad­min­is­trat­ive costs in­curred in re­spect of per­sons seek­ing asylum and per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion without a res­id­ence per­mit.²⁵⁵

^2ter The Con­fed­er­a­tion may pay can­tons in which a fed­er­al centre is loc­ated a flat-rate sub­sidy to­wards the se­cur­ity costs.²⁵⁶

³ It may pay sub­sidies to fa­cil­it­ies for trau­mat­ised per­sons resid­ing in Switzer­land on the basis of this Act.

⁴ ...²⁵⁷

^4bis It may pay sub­sidies for the con­duct of em­ploy­ment pro­grammes for per­sons ac­com­mod­ated in fed­er­al centres. For this pur­pose it shall enter in­to pub­lic ser­vice agree­ments with the can­tons, com­munes or re­spons­ible third parties at the rel­ev­ant loc­a­tions.²⁵⁸

⁵ ...²⁵⁹

⁶ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall re­im­burse the can­tons for staff costs which arise in con­nec­tion with the pre­par­a­tion of de­cisions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 31.

⁷ It may in terms of the in­ter­na­tion­al co­oper­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 113 provide sub­sidies to the bod­ies fund­ing in­ter­na­tion­ally ori­ented pro­jects or to in­ter­na­tion­ally act­ive or­gan­isa­tions.

⁸ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the re­quire­ments and the pay­ment and the ac­count­ing pro­ced­ures for the con­tri­bu­tions.