(MENAFN- Swissinfo)
Picking through rubble in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, 22 March 2023. Keystone / Erdem Sahin
The speedier processing for survivors of the devastating earthquakes in February is not needed anymore, since applications have fallen sharply, Swiss authorities have said.
This content was published on May 2, 2023 May 2, 2023 Keystone-SDA/dos Up until the end of April, over 300 people from Syria and Turkey had come to Switzerland on such a visa, the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) said on Tuesday.
The fast-track programme was introduced after several shattering earthquakes struck parts of Turkey and Syria on February 6, killing over 50,000 people.
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The visas allowed people with friends or family in Switzerland to come and stay with them for up to 90 days.
Overall, 647 visa requests have been handed in to date – 501 in Istanbul and 146 at the Swiss consulate in Beirut, SEM said. Of these, 96 were rejected, while 241 are being processed; in most of the pending cases, authorities are waiting to confirm that the Swiss relatives can indeed provide for the short-term needs of the applicants.
Requests reached a peak of around 120 per week at the beginning of March, before declining steadily since, authorities say. Thus, despite the“difficult” situation in Syria and Turkey,“there no longer seems to be any urgency” to warrant continuing the fast-track procedure.
All requests filed before May 12 will still benefit from the speedier procedure.
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