Rejected asylum seekers are often being helped to stay on in Switzerland illegally (Keystone)

The number of asylum seekers who “disappear” before their cases are processed is growing. Some are given shelter by concerned citizens, who risk prosecution to help.

It is a double flight for those who have left their own country and made it to Switzerland, only to go underground and live in fear of discovery by the Swiss authorities.

Those who take their chances and disappear have usually received a negative decision on their asylum application or find their request is not being considered.

Instead of leaving Switzerland voluntarily or awaiting forced deportation, they opt to go underground, joining the ranks of the “sans papiers” or undocumented illegal immigrants, a growing community in Switzerland, estimated to number around 100,000.

Many do not wait for a definite decision from the authorities: In 2011, according to the Federal Migration Office, 12.7 per cent of applicants, or 2,607 people, disappeared while their cases were being processed. In 2010 the rate was 12 per cent, compared with nine per cent in 2008.

read more here: http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Breaking_the_law_to_provide_sanctuary.html?cid=32064320

Note by the editor: Not all those ‘gone underground’ remain in Switzerland. Most of them have relatives in other Schengen countries and might ‘try their luck’ elsewhere.