Leaving for Switzerland as a refugee, poet or tourist

Here are the stories we'll be following the week of May 21, 2016.

Monday – Tuesday

Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter heads to Istanbul for the World Humanitarian Summit - talks on how to address the Syrian refugee crisis and improve humanitarian aid. He’ll also visit refugee camps in Lebanon where Switzerland has supported projects for those fleeing the Syrian conflct.

Wednesday

swissinfo.ch’s new fact-checking series launches with an article looking at whether most asylum seekers who come to Switzerland are driven by economic factors.

Thursday

Two hundred years ago, the great British poet Lord Byron fled England for Switzerland with fellow Romantics for a very special summer break. The creative juices flowed during their five-month stay, resulting in Byron’s poems “The Prisoner of Chillon” and “Manfred”, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, and a short story by young physician John Polidori called “The Vampyr” which influenced Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”. Their Swiss summer would also have other enduring influences, most notably on tourism.

Friday

How easy or difficult is it to enter Switzerland? It all depends where you come from. Using maps and graphics, we show how Switzerland has divided the world into two halves consisting of, one could argue, haves and have-nots.

What you may have missed last week:

swissinfo.ch