تدرس الحكومة السويسرية اقتراحات برفض طلبات اللجوء إذا لم يستطع أصحابها تقديم أوراق تثبت هويتهم للسلطات خلال ثماني وأربعين ساعة. وتقول مفوضية الأمم المتحدة العليا لشؤون اللاجئين إن تلك الاقتراحات قد تعد انتهاكاً للمعاهدة الدولية لحماية حقوق اللاجئين الموقعة عام 1951. تقرير إيموجين فولكس:
The UN refugee agency has a number of concerns about the planned changes to Switzerland؟s
asylum laws, but most worrying of all, the agency believes, is the proposal on identity documents.
Many refugees flee their countries without papers; sometimes they have been confiscated by the authorities. Others never had identity cards in the first place. Some asylum-seekers give their papers to unscrupulous people-smugglers to help them across borders and never get them back again. All such cases deserve to have their requests for asylum heard, the agency says, even if they don't have valid documents.
The Swiss proposal to limit the time allowed to produce identity papers to 48 hours could, the UN believes, lead to people being forcibly returned to countries where they have been persecuted.
The refugee agency points out that applications for asylum are falling all over Europe, including Switzerland, and says there is no need for governments to focus so single-mindedly on restricting the asylum process.
But Switzerland's traditionally generous refugee policy is now in the hands of the far-right Justice Minister, Christoph Blocher, who came to office in December on a promise to crack down on illegal asylum-seekers.
asylum
الحماية التي توفرها الدول للأجانب الذين غادروا بلادهم لأسباب سياسية
flee
الهروب، الفرار
confiscated
مصادرة
unscrupulous
أشخاص غير أمناء يقدمون على استغلال الآخرين دون مراعاة لحقوقهم
forcibly returned
أجبر على العودة
persecuted
عومل بقسوة وبظلم
falling
المعني المقصود هنا: تتناقص
single-mindedly
السعي بإصرار وبضيق أفق لتحقيق هدف معين
restricting
تضييق أو تقليص
crack down on
استخدام القانون لوقف ممارسة معينة