Switerzland: Asylum requests dropped after Balkan route closure

The number of requests for asylum in Switzerland has fallen sharply after authorities in other European countries closed the Balkan land route used by thousands to flee conflicts, Swiss authorities said Thursday.
Requests for asylum in Switzerland fell by one-third in September compared to the corresponding period last year, the State Secretariat for Migration said.

"The closing of the Balkan route from Greece in the direction of Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Scandinavia as well as the agreement reached between the EU and Turkey led to a significant drop in irregular migration from the Middle East to Europe from March 2016 onwards," it said in a report. The migration office said that 1.409 asylum applications were filed in Switzerland in September, a drop of 33 percent from the same month in 2016. In September 2015, there were 4.500 requests made.

Since the beginning of the year, 13.916 asylum applications have been registered in Switzerland. This is the lowest level since 2010, when there were 11.170 cases, according to the office. Switzerland is not a member of the European Union (EU), but it has accepted asylum-seekers who reached Greece and Italy as part of the EU's relocation program.
"Out of solidarity, Switzerland has joined the EU's program to relocate asylum seekers within Europe and actively accept refugees who find themselves in particularly dire circumstances in the first host country," said the report. So far, Switzerland has taken in 1.300 people since the scheme began in September 2015.