The Global Cities Hub is proud to support the whole-of-government Swiss pledge, developed under the leadership of the city of Zürich and submitted at the Global Refugee Forum held in Geneva (13-15 Dec. 2023).
Parties to the pledge commit to enhance the cooperation between the municipal, cantonal and federal levels in national refugee policymaking to strenghten the Swiss tripartite asylum system. The cities of Zürich, Bern, Geneva, Basel, Lausanne, Spiez, the Union of Swiss Cities, as well as some cantonal authorities, the State Secretariat for Migration and GCH will work together towards this aim.
This pledge testifies to the fact that Swiss cities are key to addressing today’s refugee challenges, as they share large parts of the responsibility to protect, assist and include refugees into Swiss society. This has been particularly true in the case of the recent Ukraine refugee response, which has put considerable pressure on the Swiss asylum system.
This pledge is only a start and the GCH is convinced that enhancing channels of communications between the cities, cantons and federal authorities in Switzerland on asylum issues will produce concrete outputs and improve the lives of refugees in Switzerland.
See summary of “Swiss whole-of-government pledge” in the Call to Local Action 2023 report (p.66) prepared by the GFMD Mayors Mechanism, that includes actions local and regional governments are taking to meet the needs of refugees and migrants in 2023.
