Switzerland’s Asylum Crisis: 80% of North African Applicants Accused of Crimes as Calls Grow for Mass Deportations

Switzerland is facing renewed demands for mass removals of failed asylum seekers after an internal government analysis found that 80.5% of applicants from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia were accused of at least one criminal offense during or after their asylum proceedings.

The same group, interestingly, has virtually no prospect of being allowed to remain—around 99 percent of their asylum applications are rejected.

The figures, compiled by Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Migration and reported on by Blick, have intensified criticism of an asylum system that opponents say allows large numbers of young foreign men with almost no chance of receiving protection to remain in the country long enough to commit offenses.

The contrast with other asylum seekers is stark. Among applicants from all other countries of origin, 12.3% were recorded as accused in criminal proceedings—a fraction of the rate among Maghreb (North African) nationals.

“Only one fifth of this group of people did not attract criminal attention during their stay in Switzerland,” the SEM said in its internal assessment. Officials say the figures confirm a problem that police and asylum-center employees have confronted for years.

SEM chief spokesman Daniel Bach said young men from North Africa account for a disproportionate share of incidents inside federal asylum centers. “They commit most of the crimes that are attributed to asylum seekers,” he said.

The overwhelming rejection rate has made the figures particularly damaging politically. If roughly 99 percent of these applicants ultimately have no entitlement to Swiss protection, critics argue that the priority should be swift removal rather than prolonged accommodation inside an asylum system financed by working taxpayers.

“Practically no asylum seeker from these countries is entitled to the protection of Switzerland,” Bach said. “Criminals must leave Switzerland quickly. This is a priority of the asylum strategy.”

The numbers, for parties demanding tougher immigration controls, are being cited as evidence that the asylum system has become increasingly vulnerable to abuse. Their argument is that Switzerland is spending money processing, housing and policing migrants whom authorities already know are overwhelmingly unlikely to qualify as refugees.

The government attempted to tighten the system in 2024 by introducing a 24-hour procedure for applicants from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The accelerated process was designed to identify claims with virtually no chance of success before applicants could remain in the system for months.

Authorities say applicants have nevertheless found ways to disrupt the procedure. Some refuse to provide fingerprints, fail to attend appointments, or leave asylum facilities before their cases can be completed.

One tactic previously identified by officials involved repeatedly entering asylum centers for food and shelter while avoiding fingerprinting and therefore avoiding rapid identification and deportation proceedings. The 24-hour procedure has made such behavior harder, with authorities now able to close abandoned or obstructed claims more quickly.

Despite this, removals can still be delayed through appeals, missing documentation, and resistance from rejected applicants. That gap between a negative asylum decision and actual deportation has become one of the central targets of Switzerland’s immigration debate.

The SEM is now examining wider use of coercive measures against repeat offenders, including stricter administrative detention. Federal and cantonal authorities are coordinating efforts aimed at keeping rejected foreign offenders available for removal rather than repeatedly releasing them back into Swiss communities.

Claudio Martelli, the SEM official responsible for asylum matters, said the criminal behavior of a minority damages legitimate refugees as well as the Swiss public. “They abuse the right to asylum in Switzerland, and they damage the reputation of all people who genuinely need protection,” he said.

The agency is also considering whether obviously unfounded applicants should be prevented from entering lengthy asylum proceedings at all. Supporters of the proposal say people arriving through safe countries with virtually no realistic protection claim should be processed for departure rather than absorbed into a system designed for genuine refugees.

The political response has spread beyond the right-wing populist, national-conservative Swiss People’s Party. FDP senator Damian Müller said an 80.5% accused rate could no longer plausibly be dismissed as a handful of isolated cases.

“With an accused rate of 80.5%, nobody can speak of isolated cases anymore,” Müller said, describing the situation as “a massive security problem.” He has called for rejected applicants and foreign offenders to be removed much more rapidly.

Even Green Liberal senator Tiana Moser has also demanded stronger action, saying some Maghreb migrants appear well aware of weaknesses in the Swiss system. Police, she noted, can repeatedly arrest the same offenders only to encounter them again after their release.

The SVP has pushed the debate furthest toward remigration, arguing that applicants arriving through safe countries should be refused at the border and that rejected offenders should remain in custody until deportation wherever the law permits. Party lawmakers say Switzerland should stop functioning as a temporary base for migrants who have no protection claim and repeatedly come into contact with police.

That approach reflects the wider remigration debate now spreading across Europe. In practical terms, proponents define it as accelerating the lawful return of rejected asylum seekers, removing foreign criminals, tightening residence rules and ensuring that people with no right to remain actually leave.

Switzerland has already strengthened cooperation with North African governments. An agreement with Morocco is intended to speed up identification and documentation so that migrants ordered to leave can be repatriated without the administrative delays that have historically frustrated deportations.

The government stresses that the extraordinary Maghreb figures do not describe Switzerland’s asylum population as a whole. Bach said 96 percent of the overall asylum population in 2025 had not been accused of any criminal offense—making the concentration of accusations among North African applicants even more politically striking.

With virtually every application from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia ending in rejection and four out of five applicants in the 2024 analysis becoming the subject of criminal accusations, pressure is growing on Swiss authorities to move from processing migration to reversing it.