Date: Thursday, 07 March 2019
In May 2018, Eritrean asylum seekers demonstrated in Bern calling for a more humane asylum policy for Eritreans.
(Keystone)The young man would like to do an apprenticeship as an electrician or mechanic, but he does not believe in it anymore. "Life in Switzerland is complicated," sighs his friend Samson. "It's not complicated, it's dead," Mewael replies with tears in her eyes.
In order to escape this situation, some are trying to land asylum in another country. Yonas * went to Germany, but was sent back to Switzerland because of the Dublin agreement external link.
Eritrea is ruled by a dictator who oppresses his people; it is a country where there is a crime against humanity as described in a report external linkof the United Nations ( UN external link) says: "Those responsible in Eritrea go since 1991 persistent, widespread and systematic against the civilian population. Since then, they commit crimes such as slavery, imprisonment, enforced disappearance and torture, as well as other inhuman acts such as persecution, rape and murder. "
"We do not come here for the money, we are just looking for freedom"
Hayat
Hayat * wants to tell what happened to him so we can better understand the situation of the Eritrean refugees. He explains that in Eritrea, everyone must serve in the army indefinitely. The population is not free to do their own education or to work where they want to. And many people would disappear without their families ever being informed about their imprisonment or death.
In the opinion of the SEM, it would be wrong to grant a voluntary resignation to rejected persons who refuse to leave the country simply because Switzerland can not carry out the forced repatriations. "This would reward those persons who make it clear from the start that they will not fulfill their obligation to leave the country, even though they are not dependent on the protection of Switzerland and therefore have to leave the country."
The SEM also recalls that a rejected person, who decides to stay here despite everything, no longer has the right to social assistance, but only to emergency aid. The aim is to "ensure that the persons concerned voluntarily comply with their duty to leave Switzerland, as there are no material incentives left to stay here."
And in Geneva, signatures for an online petition external link arecollected, calling on the government and parliament of the canton not to exclude Eritrean asylum seekers from social assistance and to allow them to train and work.
The trend of recent years towards a tightened asylum policy at the federal level seems to be continuing. The SEM published a new external link report on the situation in Eritrea in 2016 and further tightened the bolt, a practice backed by recent rulings bythe Federal Constitutional Court's external link .
* Name of the editor known.
(Translated from French: Rita Emch)