Switzerland is changing the accommodation system for refugees from Ukraine who left the territory of our state in connection with the war.
Ukrainian refugees will no longer be able to choose their residence in Switzerland. On Thursday, April 21, writes swissinfo.
The portal refers to the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM, a division of the Ministry of Justice and Police), whose representatives said refugees would be distributed nationwide proportionally by region.
As the publication explains, usually the federal center first places refugees in federal centers for the reception and accommodation of migrants, and then distributes them to the cantons. However, in the situation of current force majeure, such a system will no longer work.
According to SEM spokesman David Keller, there are difficulties in distributing the growing number of refugees, who mainly go to Zurich, Basel and Bern, as well as the canton of Tychino.
“Refugees prefer to live, understandably, in the most popular and developed regions. Now this skill is gone,” Keller said.
He noted that now the refugees and the Swiss families who host them can no longer independently decide on the resettlement of people seeking protection from the war. However, refugee families can stay together.
Others will be distributed nationwide “based on the instructions of the authorities, and not in accordance with their own wishes.”
“And if any of the refugees want to change the canton, then permission to do so must be given by the cantonal authorities, taking into account the principle of proportionality,” Keller stressed.
Since the beginning of the war, approximately 37,000 refugees from Ukraine have been registered in Switzerland. About half of them were placed in private households with the support of non-governmental organizations and individual citizens.
All Ukrainian refugees, except a few people, have already obtained a special transfer status (residence permit category S), which allows them to seek employment and enroll in language courses.
It was previously reported that for the first time in history, Switzerland gave Ukrainians who fled their homes due to the Russian invasion a special “S” status.
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Source: korrespondent
