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.

Pro­ced­ures are gov­erned by the Ad­min­is­trat­ive Pro­ced­ure Act of 20 Decem­ber 1968⁹ (APA), the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court Act of 17 June 2005¹⁰ and the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court Act of 17 June 2005¹¹, un­less this Act provides oth­er­wise.

¹ SEM de­cides on grant­ing or re­fus­ing to grant asylum as well as on re­mov­al from Switzer­land.¹³

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall identi­fy states in ad­di­tion to the EU/EFTA states in which on the basis of its find­ings:¹⁴

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.¹⁵

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.

³ Cases are not cred­ible in par­tic­u­lar if they are 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.¹⁶

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.¹⁷

co­oper­ate in provid­ing bio­met­ric data;

f.¹⁸

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 1951¹⁹.²⁰

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 centre²¹ 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.²²

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

¹ SEM²³ shall place asylum seekers’ travel doc­u­ments and iden­tity pa­pers on file.²⁴

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.²⁵

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.²⁶

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.

² If 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 APA³⁰ 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:³²

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.³³

there are no grounds for re­voc­a­tion un­der Art­icle 62 para­graph 1 of the For­eign Na­tion­als and In­teg­ra­tion Act of 16 Decem­ber 2005³⁴ (FNIA)³⁵.

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.

⁵ Pending 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.³⁶

² SEM rul­ings or in­ter­im rul­ings are is­sued in the of­fi­cial lan­guage spoken at the asylum seeker’s place of res­id­ence.³⁷

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.³⁸

¹ The pro­vi­sion of the Ad­min­is­trat­ive Pro­ced­ure Act of 20 Decem­ber 1968³⁹ 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.⁴⁰

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.⁴¹

^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.⁴²

⁴ ...⁴³

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.⁴⁴

⁶ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the role, re­spons­ib­il­it­ies and du­ties of the trus­ted per­son.⁴⁵

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.⁵¹

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.⁵³

^1bis SEM shall veri­fy its com­pet­ence to carry out the asylum pro­ced­ure, tak­ing ac­count of the pro­vi­sions of the Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments.⁵⁴

^1ter It shall au­thor­ise entry if Switzer­land is com­pet­ent to carry out the asylum pro­ced­ure in ac­cord­ance with Reg­u­la­tion (EU) No 604/2013⁵⁵ and the asylum seeker:⁵⁶

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.⁵⁷

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.⁵⁸

^2bis In or­der to avoid cases of hard­ship, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may spe­cify the ad­di­tion­al cases in which entry will be au­thor­ised.⁵⁹

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.⁶⁰

^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.⁶¹

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.⁶²

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 37.⁶³

¹ If SEM does not grant entry in­to Switzer­land, it may dis­miss or re­ject the ap­plic­a­tion for asylum.⁶⁵

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.⁶⁶

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 FNIA⁷⁰; 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.⁸³

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).⁸⁴ 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 centre⁸⁵ 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.⁸⁶

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.

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.⁹²

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 54.⁹³

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/EC⁹⁵ 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 604/2013⁹⁸, 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 604/2013¹⁰¹.

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)¹⁰² or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis of the Mil­it­ary Crim­in­al Code of 13 June 1927¹⁰³ (MCC) or an ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 68 FNIA¹⁰⁴.¹⁰⁵

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.¹¹⁰

If the per­son seek­ing asylum is the sub­ject of an ap­plic­a­tion for ex­tra­di­tion in ac­cord­ance with the Mu­tu­al As­sist­ance Act of 20 March 1981¹¹³, 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.¹¹⁵

^1bis The ad­di­tion­al re­quire­ments for au­thor­ising gain­ful em­ploy­ment are gov­erned by the Fed­er­al Act of 16 Decem­ber 2005¹¹⁶ on For­eign Na­tion­als (FNIA).¹¹⁷

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.¹¹⁸

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.¹¹⁹

^3bis The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may is­sue a tem­por­ary ban on em­ploy­ment for cer­tain groups of asylum seekers.¹²⁰

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.¹²¹

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 FNIA¹²⁴ ap­ply to the en­force­ment of the re­mov­al or­der.

¹ The re­mov­al or­der shall in­dic­ate:

a.¹²⁷

sub­ject to in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments, in par­tic­u­lar the Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments¹²⁸, 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.¹²⁹

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.¹³⁰

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.¹³¹

^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.¹³²

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.¹³³

⁴ The asylum seeker must be provided with an in­form­a­tion sheet with an ex­plan­a­tion of the re­mov­al or­der.¹³⁴

¹ The can­ton of al­loc­a­tion is ob­liged to en­force the re­mov­al or­der.¹³⁵

^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.¹³⁶

^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.¹³⁷

²If en­force­ment provides im­possible for tech­nic­al reas­ons, the can­ton shall ap­ply to SEM for a sys­tem for mon­it­or­ing the en­force­ment of re­mov­al.¹³⁸

³ SEM su­per­vises en­force­ment and, work­ing with the can­tons, shall es­tab­lish a sys­tem for mon­it­or­ing the en­force­ment of re­mov­al.¹³⁹

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.¹⁴⁰

^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 Code¹⁴¹ (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.¹⁴²

² ...¹⁴³

³ Chil­dren born in Switzer­land to refugee par­ents shall be re­cog­nised as refugees, provided if there are no spe­cial cir­cum­stances that pre­clude this.¹⁴⁴

⁴ If the per­sons en­titled un­der para­graphs 1 were sep­ar­ated dur­ing flight and are now abroad, their entry must be au­thor­ised on re­quest.¹⁴⁵

⁵ ...¹⁴⁶

¹ ...¹⁴⁷

² ...¹⁴⁸

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 SCC¹⁵⁰ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC¹⁵¹.

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 1951¹⁵², 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 1951¹⁵⁴ 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 FNIA¹⁵⁶.¹⁵⁷

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 SCC¹⁵⁹ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC¹⁶⁰ or a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 68 FNIA¹⁶¹ may be gain­fully em­ployed any­where in Switzer­land provided salary and em­ploy­ment con­di­tions cus­tom­ary for the loc­a­tion, pro­fes­sion and sec­tor are sat­is­fied (Art.22 FNIA).¹⁶²

² The em­ploy­er must re­port the start, end or change of em­ploy­ment to the can­ton­al au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for the place of work in ad­vance. The re­port­ing pro­ced­ure is gov­erned by Art­icle 85apara­graphs 2–6 FNIA.

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 1951¹⁶³ 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.¹⁶⁴

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 sen­tenceFNIA¹⁶⁵.¹⁶⁶

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.¹⁶⁷

¹ Asylum in Switzer­land shall ex­pire if:

a.¹⁶⁸

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.¹⁶⁹

an or­der for re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion has been ex­ecuted;

e.¹⁷⁰

an ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC¹⁷¹ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC¹⁷² 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 1951¹⁷³.¹⁷⁴

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 FNIA¹⁷⁶ 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 ...¹⁷⁷

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.¹⁷⁸

² If there is no ob­vi­ous per­se­cu­tion in terms of Art­icle 3, 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:¹⁷⁹

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 CC¹⁸⁰ 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.¹⁸¹

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 Art­icle 53;

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 SCC¹⁸⁴ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC¹⁸⁵.

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 FNIA¹⁸⁶.¹⁸⁷

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.¹⁸⁸

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 29.¹⁸⁹

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 FNIA¹⁹⁰ ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.¹⁹¹

⁵ The pro­vi­sions of Sec­tion 1a. of Chapter 8 ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to para­graphs 2–4.¹⁹²

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.¹⁹³

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.¹⁹⁴

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 FNIA¹⁹⁶; or

d.¹⁹⁷

is made sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC¹⁹⁸ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC¹⁹⁹or a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 68 FNIA²⁰⁰

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.²⁰⁸

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.²⁰⁹

^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 2.²¹⁰

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.²¹¹

^3bis The par­tic­u­lar needs of un­ac­com­pan­ied minor asylum seekers, fam­il­ies with chil­dren and per­sons re­quir­ing care must be met if pos­sible when provid­ing ac­com­mod­a­tion.²¹²

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.²¹³

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 1994²¹⁵ 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:²¹⁷

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.²¹⁸

en­dangers pub­lic se­cur­ity or or­der;

i.²¹⁹

has been pro­sec­uted or con­victed of a crime;

j.²²⁰

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

k.²²¹

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.²²²

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.²²³

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 FNIA²²⁶.

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.²²⁸ 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.²³²

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 SCC²³³ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC²³⁴ or a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 68 FNIA²³⁵ shall cov­er, in par­tic­u­lar, the costs of so­cial as­sist­ance and also con­tain a con­tri­bu­tion to­wards the su­per­vi­sion and ad­min­is­trat­ive costs.²³⁶ They shall be made for a max­im­um of five years from the date of sub­mis­sion of the asylum ap­plic­a­tion.²³⁷

^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.²³⁸

⁴ Pay­ments made in re­spect of per­sons who are only en­titled to emer­gency aid un­der Art­icle 82 are com­pens­a­tion for grant­ing emer­gency aid.²³⁹

⁵ ...²⁴⁰

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 55 and 87 of the FNIA²⁴³ and to make it avail­able to SEM or re­cord it in SEM's Cent­ral Mi­gra­tion In­form­a­tion Sys­tem (ZEMIS).

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 55²⁴⁵ and 87 FNIA²⁴⁶ 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 55²⁴⁷ 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...²⁴⁸

^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.²⁴⁹

^2ter The Con­fed­er­a­tion may pay can­tons in which a fed­er­al centre is loc­ated a flat-rate sub­sidy to­wards the se­cur­ity costs.²⁵⁰

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

⁴ ...²⁵¹

^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.²⁵²

⁵ ...²⁵³

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.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may bear the costs for the entry and de­par­ture of refugees and per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion.

² If the per­sons con­cerned are des­ti­tute, it shall bear the costs for the de­par­ture of asylum seekers, of per­sons whose ap­plic­a­tion for asylum was re­jec­ted, whose ap­plic­a­tion for asylum was dis­missed or who with­drew their ap­plic­a­tion for asylum, and of per­sons who were re­moved fol­low­ing the re­voc­a­tion of tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion.²⁵⁴

³ It may make provide sub­sidies to­wards ex­pendit­ure in­curred by the can­tons that is dir­ectly con­nec­ted with the or­gan­isa­tion of de­par­ture.

^3bis In the con­text of ap­ply­ing the Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments²⁵⁵, it may provide sub­sidies to­wards ex­pendit­ure in­curred by the can­tons that is dir­ectly con­nec­ted with the trans­fer of per­sons to Switzer­land.²⁵⁶

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the re­quire­ments and the pay­ment and ac­count­ing pro­ced­ure for the con­tri­bu­tions. If pos­sible it shall de­term­ine flat-rate pay­ments.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall provide re­turn as­sist­ance. For this pur­pose, it may provide for the fol­low­ing meas­ures:

a.

the full or par­tial fund­ing of re­turn coun­selling agen­cies;

b.

the full or par­tial fund­ing of pro­jects in Switzer­land to pre­serve the abil­ity of those con­cerned to re­turn;

c.

the full or par­tial fund­ing of pro­grammes in the nat­ive coun­try, coun­try of ori­gin or a third coun­try to fa­cil­it­ate and ar­range the re­turn, re­pat­ri­ation and re­in­teg­ra­tion (pro­grammes abroad);

d.

the grant­ing of fin­an­cial sup­port in in­di­vidu­al cases to fa­cil­it­ate the re­in­teg­ra­tion of re­turnees or provide them with tem­por­ary med­ic­al care in their nat­ive coun­try, coun­try of ori­gin or third coun­try.

² Pro­grammes abroad may also pur­sue the goal of con­trib­ut­ing to the pre­ven­tion of ir­reg­u­lar mi­gra­tion. Ir­reg­u­lar mi­gra­tion pre­ven­tion pro­grammes are those that con­trib­ute in the short term to lim­it­ing the risk of primary or sec­ond­ary mi­gra­tion to Switzer­land.

³ For the pur­pose of im­ple­ment­ing re­turn as­sist­ance, the Con­fed­er­a­tion may work with in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions and set up a co­ordin­a­tion of­fice.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the re­quire­ments and the pay­ment and the ac­count­ing pro­ced­ure for the sub­sidies.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall en­cour­age vol­un­tary re­turn by provid­ing re­turn coun­selling. The re­turn coun­selling shall be giv­en at fed­er­al centres and in the can­tons.

² SEM shall en­sure that reg­u­lar coun­selling ses­sions take place in the fed­er­al centres. It may del­eg­ate these tasks to the can­ton­al re­turn coun­selling agen­cies.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall by agree­ment make con­tri­bu­tions to com­pensate the pro­vider of re­turn coun­selling in fed­er­al centres for the ad­min­is­trat­ive and staff costs arising from pro­vi­sion of in­form­a­tion and coun­selling to asylum seekers and per­sons sub­ject to re­mov­al or­ders. The com­pens­a­tion shall be set 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.

² The pay­ment of con­tri­bu­tions for re­turn coun­selling provided in the can­tons is gov­erned by Art­icle 93 para­graph 4.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall veri­fy that fed­er­al sub­sidies are used in ac­cord­ance with the le­gis­la­tion on sub­sidies, that they are ef­fect­ive and that ac­counts on fed­er­al sub­sidies are prop­erly main­tained. It may also del­eg­ate this task to a third party and call in the can­ton­al audit of­fices for sup­port.

² Any per­son who re­ceives fed­er­al sub­sidies is ob­liged to dis­close the de­tails of their or­gan­isa­tion as well as the data and key fig­ures in re­la­tion to in­come and ex­pendit­ure in the field of asylum.

³ The Fed­er­al Audit Of­fice, SEM and the can­ton­al audit of­fices shall mon­it­or fin­an­cial activ­it­ies in ac­cord­ance with their reg­u­la­tions. They shall de­term­ine the suit­able course of ac­tion, co­ordin­ate their activ­it­ies and keep each oth­er in­formed about their find­ings.

¹ Build­ings and in­stall­a­tions used by the Con­fed­er­a­tion to ac­com­mod­ate asylum seekers or for con­duct­ing asylum pro­ced­ures re­quire plan­ning ap­prov­al from the FD­JP (ap­prov­al au­thor­ity) if they:

a.

are to be newly con­struc­ted;

b.

are altered or as­signed a new form of use.

² Plan­ning ap­prov­al cov­ers all forms of au­thor­isa­tion re­quired un­der fed­er­al law.

³ Can­ton­al au­thor­isa­tions and plans are not re­quired. The can­ton­al law must be taken in­to con­sid­er­a­tion dur­ing the plan­ning ap­prov­al pro­ced­ure and the weigh­ing up of in­terests.

⁴ In prin­ciple, plan­ning ap­prov­al for pro­jects that will have a con­sid­er­able ef­fect on space and the en­vir­on­ment re­quires a sec­tor­al plan in ac­cord­ance with the Fed­er­al Act of 22 June 1979²⁶³ on Spa­tial Plan­ning.

¹ The ac­quis­i­tion of real es­tate for build­ings and in­stall­a­tions to ac­com­mod­ate asylum seekers or to con­duct asylum pro­ced­ures and the es­tab­lish­ment of rights in rem to such real es­tate is the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the FD­JP. It is en­titled to make com­puls­ory pur­chases if ne­ces­sary.

² The plan­ning ap­prov­al pro­ced­ure is gov­erned by this Act.²⁶⁴

³ If com­puls­ory pur­chases are re­quired, the pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act of 20 June 1930²⁶⁵ on Com­puls­ory Pur­chase (Com­PurA) also ap­ply.²⁶⁶

The plan­ning ap­prov­al ap­plic­a­tion must be sub­mit­ted with re­quired doc­u­ment­a­tion to the ap­prov­al au­thor­ity. The au­thor­ity shall check the doc­u­ment­a­tion to make sure that it is com­plete and re­quest any fur­ther doc­u­ments that are needed.