North African asylum seekers in Switzerland have been accused of one or more criminal offences at a rate of 80.5 per cent, an internal government evaluation has shown.
Applicants from the Maghreb were named as suspects during their asylum procedure or after a negative decision in 2024, according to the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). Swiss newspaper Blick obtained the document under the country’s freedom of information law.
The comparable figure for asylum seekers from all other countries of origin was 12.3 per cent. Public broadcaster SRF, which also saw the paper, put the gap at more than six and a half times.
The figures record accusations rather than convictions. The SEM noted in the paper that only a fifth of the group had stayed clear of prosecutors.
Applicants from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia have almost no prospect of protection, with about 99 per cent of their claims refused. Switzerland, in the Schengen area though outside the European Union, tightened its asylum rules again in October 2025 with a ban on foreign travel.
Jans introduced a 24-hour procedure for North African applicants in 2024 to clear hopeless cases quickly. The SEM said the process in fact took an average of 22 days.
Removal is harder still, with the agency telling NZZ am Sonntag that about 90 per cent of North African applicants arrived without identity papers, which blocks the issuing of travel documents.
A federal and cantonal task force on repeat offenders, launched in June 2025, tracked 87 people. After six months 36 had either left the country or disappeared, and a final report is due in late autumn.
Council of States member Damian Müller of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) said a rate on that scale could no longer be dismissed as isolated cases and amounted to a serious security problem. Fellow Council of States member Tiana Moser of the Green Liberal Party said many young Maghreb men came to Switzerland knowing the legal system would treat them leniently.
SEM spokesman Daniel Bach stressed that 96 per cent of the asylum population faced no accusation at all in 2025. The comparable rate was 0.6 per cent for Swiss nationals and 1 per cent for resident foreigners.
Jans said he would tighten administrative detention and bar applicants with no realistic claim from lodging one, with a legislative package due to go out to consultation this year. Neither measure addresses the missing passports that keep rejected North Africans in the country.
