Kurdish families have made it to Switzerland from Turkey, Iraq and Syria. According to Swiss media, several families have been trapped in the transit area of the Zurich airport for 3 weeks along with their children.

TWO FAMILIES HAVE BEEN THERE FOR 50 DAYS

Two families among them have been in the transit area for 50 days, after which they were taken to the asylum center of the canton.

The exiled persons claimed asylum as soon as they landed in Switzerland. Many of them say they were forced to flee due to threats and pressure for political reasons.

The reason they were trapped in the transit area is because authorities don’t take in such applications from refugees. The Bern government wants to send the refugee families back to the countries they passed from. Most of the families have arrived to Switzerland through South Africa, which Switzerland deems safe.

THE GOVERNMENT CLAIMS EVERYTHING IS NORMAL

State Secretariat for Migrants (SEM) claims the practice is entirely normal. According to law, state authorities can hold asylum seekers for 60 days, during which their need for shelter and food is provided.

According to radio and television institution RTS, SEM Spokesperson Lukas Rieder said, “Nobody thinks it is good for children to remain in the transit area this long, but it must be stressed that the situation is not that bad. They have the opportunity to take part in various activities, this is not a prison.”

NO DIFFERENT FROM PRISON FOR REFUGEES

What the spokesperson said and what the families lived through are completely different. The families say the situation is unbearable and boring. One of the refugees who says he came from Turkey said, “Men stay in one room, and women and children in another. This is like a prison for me.”

It is illegal to hold children for deportation in Switzerland, but the children in the airport are held under the same conditions as their parents. A little girl said, “I feel very bad. There is nothing to do. I want to go out.”

RISK OF BEING SENT TO SOUTH AFRICA

All the refugees worry about deportation to countries they passed through, and then being sent back to Turkey from those countries.

Amnesty International doesn’t consider South Africa to be a safe country. AI Switzerland Chapter Lawyer Alain Bovard said, “There is no guarantee that the persons can be integrated into a full and correct asylum process.”

Bovard added: “If the persons don’t have ID cards, there is almost no chance that their asylum claims will be recorded. They will have to be sent back to their origin countries.”

PREVIOUS DECISION BY THE COURT

Last February, the Federal Administrative Court had stopped the SEM’s decision to send a female Kurdish journalist trapped in the Zurich airport for weeks to her transit country Brazil. The Federal Court ruled that Brazil can’t be considered a safe country, will not be able to offer a just asylum process and might send the journalist back to Turkey.