Five Arrests As Migrant Crisis Spreads To Switzerland

Police have arrested five migrants at an asylum centre in Switzerland, a country which until now has been relatively untouched by migrant violence.

Local police detained the migrants staying at the shelter in Urdorf, near the city of Zurich, yesterday morning, the Limmattaler Zeitung says.

Two men, a 30-year-old Tunisian and a 32-year-old Nigerian, were arrested for what police describe as “property crimes”, while a further two — a 26-year-old Gambian and a 28-year-old Nigerian — have been sent to the Migration Board.

In addition, a 40-year-old man from Yemen was detained for offences against the Foreigners Act.

Switzerland has been left relatively untouched by the migrant crisis, with most bypassing the country in favour of European Union states with more relaxed migration laws.

In September, the country’s migration office said that 3,899 migrants had applied for asylum there the previous month, just three more than in July. Of those requests, 461 came from Afghans and 401 from Syrians.

The Swiss Migration Office said in a statement: “Switzerland is not a preferred destination country of migrants, which explains why the rise in the number of asylum requests is modest compared to that observed in Europe as a whole.”

Only around 35 per cent of Syrian migrants are awarded refugee status in the country, compared with nearly 100 per cent in Sweden.

Despite the country’s relatively peaceful record, a major incident did take place in the capital, Bern, in September. A group of Kurdish independence supporters was rammed by a car driven by a Turkish nationalist, resulting in two deaths.

In last month’s parliamentary elections, the anti-mass migration Swiss People’s Party finished first with 29.5 per cent of the vote, an increase of almost three percent from the previous election that allowed it to increase its seat count to 65 from 54.

The result tipped the balance of power in the Swiss parliament to the centre right after an election dominated by the migrant crisis.

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