by Dale Bechtel, swissinfo.ch
The authorities have placed strict conditions on an agreement governing the independent monitoring of forced deportations of rejected asylum seekers.
Monitors deployed by the Federation of Protestant Churches in a six-month trial period starting in July will not be allowed to go public with their reports.
The Federal Migration Office announced on Wednesday that the church federation had agreed to take on the six-month mandate, and that it would be assisted by the non-governmental Swiss Refugee Council.
Since it is a party to Europe’s Schengen accord on border controls, Switzerland is obliged to introduce a monitoring system for deportation flights.
They have been controversial since a Nigerian asylum seeker died at Zurich airport in March 2010, which led to a three-month suspension of the flights.
The church body has asked former justice and police directors as well as law professors to serve as monitors.
According to the agreement, they are mandated to provide reports to the federal police and justice ministry at the end of the year.
Marie Avet from the Migration Office told swissinfo.ch that the ministry would retain “sovereignty over these reports”, meaning the authorities alone will decide what is made public and what not. read more
Categories: Europe, Human Rights, Switzerland