First 30 refugees from EU programme to arrive

(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) The first group of refugees that Switzerland will take in as part of the European Union’s refugee relocation programme will be made up of 30 people it has been confirmed. The asylum seekers mostly from Eritrea and Syria are currently in Italy.

These 30 people are a “pilot group” Martin Reichlin spokesman for theState Secretariat for Migrationtold the Swiss News Agency on Sunday confirming information that had appeared in the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper.

The group will be accepted as part as theEuropean refugee relocation programme agreed in September 2015 to which Switzerland has signed up as a voluntary participant.

The country has said that it is prepared to take up to 1500 refugees on condition they are registered as asylum seekers in neighbouring Italy or in Greece.

Overall the EU wants to relocate 120000 refugees among the bloc to ease the strains on frontline nations like Greece and Italy. But the principle of sharing refugees has been extremely divisive and opposed by several countries in central and eastern Europe. The deal therefore does not set mandatory quotas for each nation.

Date still unknown

“We expect the 30 refugees to arrive around mid-April but we do not know the exact date” Reichlin said. “It could be in a week’s time or in four weeks’ time."

The group is made up of asylum seekers who reached Italy via the Mediterranean and most of them come from Eritrea or Syria he added. Applicants from these countries have a 75% chance or higher of gaining protected status across the EU Reichlin explained.

As soon as they arrive they will go through the Swiss asylum process as normal he added.

The Swiss cabinet has said that it would be prepared to take in a second group of refugees as long as the EU agrees on quotas as part of a further relocation programme. The timetable for this is not yet known. The Swiss may accept 4500-5000 refugees according to the Swiss News Agency.