Swiss Refugee Council's opinion on the Asylum Strategy 2027

The Swiss Refugee Council (OSAR) welcomes the acknowledgment in the Asylum Strategy 2027 that asylum is a shared responsibility of the federal government, cantons, and municipalities, as well as the commitment to international protection and integration. However, OSAR strongly criticises the strategy’s dominant focus on deterrence and stricter enforcement. Measures to restrict access to asylum procedures, accelerate processing, and tighten removals risk undermining legal safeguards. OSAR argues that the strategy neglects systemic issues such as violence prevention, compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, standards for private security services, and the need to reform the status of provisional admission. OSAR also notes that legal protection actors, volunteer groups, and refugee-led organisations are insufficiently included. It calls for equal rights across protection statuses and proposes a unified humanitarian status for people displaced by war. While supporting faster extended asylum procedures, OSAR warns that acceleration must not compromise fairness and insists on increasing funding for legal assistance. It rejects the creation of additional pre-procedures and calls for an urgent evaluation of the 24-hour accelerated procedure introduced in 2024. Regarding accommodation, OSAR supports integration-oriented approaches and urges the federal government to significantly expand long-term capacity beyond 5,000 beds, set minimum standards, and diversify housing options, including private hosting.