Help for asylum seekers who choose to retu home

For 20 years, Switzerland has been helping asylum seekers who choose to retu to their home countries. The govement is positive that giving money and advice to people to retu home is part and parcel of a credible asylum policy. (SRF/swissinfo.ch)

For the govement Switzerland's repatriation program is a success story. It says, helping people go back to their home country is an integral part of the asylum system. According to justice minister Simonetta Sommaruga, convincing people to retu of their own accord is the top goal. She claims that this kind of aid costs Switzerland less than keeping asylum seekers in Switzerland for years before forcing them to retu, if their plea is rejected. In many cases, retuing asylum seekers receive money in cash right at the airport gate. It's both money for the jouey as well as financial aid to make a new start in their home country.

One key element of the programme is counselling, which is supposed to help people upon their retu. This is also where people with slim chances of being granted asylum are persuaded to make the retu trip.

Since 1997 over 90,000 asylum seekers retued to their home countries voluntarily. The largest group, of 40,000 people, retued to Kosovo; 10,000 people retued to Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the State Secretariat for Migration, over the last five years 230 people a month from over 60 countries made use of repatriation aid.