Switzerland has rejected a second asylum seeker relocation programme proposed by the European Union to relieve the burden on frontier countries like Italy and Greece.
According to the SonntagsBlick paper, a spokesperson from the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) has confirmed that currently Switzerland has no plans to renew its commitment to accept asylum seekers from southern European countries.
The Alpine nation had participated in the first such relocation programme in...
A district court in canton Zurich has given a Muslim preacher, accused of promoting violence, an 18-month suspended prison sentence. It also ordered the 25-year-old Ethiopian to be deported and banned from re-entering Switzerland for 15 years.
Police arrested the cleric in October of last year, after receiving reports of the controversial sermon delivered at the An’Nur mosque in Winterthur, in north-eastern Switzerland. The man is also charged with distributing pictures of executions...
The Swiss branch of Amnesty International has criticised a visit to Switzerland by a high-ranking delegation of Myanmar army officials to discuss federalism. The visit comes as thousands more Rohingya Muslims continue to flee violence in western Myanmar and cross into Bangladesh. “The visit [to Switzerland] is unacceptable in our eyes, as for over a month the Myanmar army has been guilty of atrocities which have caused the flight of 600,000 people to Bangladesh,” Amnesty International...
The Swiss National Council, the parliament's lower house, voted with a narrow majority against financing of mosques from abroad and for expanding general transparency of the mosques’ financial backing. According to the Federal Assembly’s website, 94 members of the parliament voted in favor of the decision, with 89 voting against it. The vote took place on Tuesday.
The new legislation, proposed by the right-wing Lega dei Ticinesi party, bans foreign financing for mosques and implies...
A small hotel in the Swiss Alps is facing a barrage of criticism after it put up a sign asking "Jewish guests" to shower before swimming in the hotel pool. Israel described it as "an anti-Semitic act" of the worst kind.
The Paradies apartment hotel in the eastern Alpine village of Arosa became the target of a fierce backlash Tuesday after an outraged guest published a photo of the sign on social media. "To our Jewish Guests," the notice read. "Please take a shower before you go...
The Turkish consulate general in Switzerland's Zurich was vandalized Monday with different colors of paint, while graffiti reading "Kill Erdoğan" was written on a bus stop and a building near the mission. Consul General, Asiye Nurcan İpekçi, told Anadolu Agency that the attack happened in the afternoon. "Police arrived right after the incident and we are examining the attack," she said. Explaining that the attackers were around 60 people wearing balaclavas, İpekçi said that police had taken...
A Swiss pacifist group says an 86-year old woman was briefly detained Tuesday after she spray-painted “Money for Weapons Kills” in German on a wall at Switzerland’s national bank, as part of a campaign to strip state financing for arms vendors.
Youniss Mussa, political secretary of “The Group for an Army-free Switzerland,” said Louise Schneider was released unharmed after the incident in Bern during a demonstration to launch a petition against state involvement in arms dealings.
...
A 32-year-old Turkish architect living in Switzerland has been "banned" by a group called the "Anti-Erdoğan Committee" from driving her Porsche through the town of Sempach near Lucerne canton.
The woman received an anonymous letter from the "Anti-Erdoğan Committee" on Monday, in which she was warned not to drive while wearing a headscarf.
"We, the Anti-Erdoğan Committee, impose on you an immediate ban on driving with your black Porsche through the town of Sempach if you...
The European Court of Human Rights upheld a decision of a Swiss court backing fines on Muslim parents who refused to allow their daughters to take part in mixed swimming lessons on the basis of their religion.
The parents, both Turkish-Swiss dual nationals, appealed to the court over a fine handed down by education authorities after they declined to send two of their daughters to mixed swimming lessons.
They said that the requirement, imposed by the school up until the age of...
In-flight meal choices of international passengers could be a potential profiling tool for national authorities, a senior airline manager has told border officials.
Marina Ripa-Braescu, the facilitation and security manager for Swiss International Air Lines, told a conference on border security in Hungary last week that information about pre-ordered meals could be used to help governments find out more about those travelling to the country before they arrive.
This information...
A man burst into a Muslim prayer hall in the Swiss city of Zurich on Monday and started shooting, injuring three men, according to police, who have launched a manhunt for the shooter.
A body was found a few hundred meters (yards) from the scene, an AFP photographer said, but it was unclear if it was connected to the shooting, which took place inside the city's Islamic Centre, near the central station.
At around 5:30 pm (1630 GMT), an unknown person entered the Islamic Centre,...
terrorists attacked the home of a Swiss-Turkish family in Zurich on Sunday, the victim told Anadolu Agency.
Mehmet Cek said the culprits harassed his wife and two children for more than 20 minutes when he was not at home.
He received a call from his wife on Sunday while he was participating at a rally in front of the Consulate General of Zurich to protest the deadly terrorist attack in Istanbul the previous day.
"PKK members hit the house's door. My wife, my 9-year-old...
The Swiss parliament voted to ban Muslim women from wearing the body covering garment burqa in public on Tuesday, only a few days after a right wing politician proposed to ban the Muslim headscarf on ID and passport photos.
The lower house of parliament narrowly backed a ban on face veils, echoing Islamophobic moves by neighbouring France and other European nations.
The law states that no person will be allowed to cover his/her face in public or hide in the public domain or the...
Walter Wobmann, a member of the right-wing Swiss People's Party, said it was unfair that headscarves were allowed in passport photos despite hats and hairbands being banned.
According to local media, the politician described the policy as an act of “unequal treatment” and branded it “unacceptable”.
Mr Wobmann, who has previously campaigned against minarets and the burka in Switzerland, told daily newspaper Blick: “It is unacceptable that you can wear a hijab in a photo but not...
A 15-year-old Muslim student in Switzerland was told Wednesday that he is required to shake the hand of his female teacher despite his claim that it went against his religious belief.
The issue started in April, when Amer Salhani and his older brother refused to shake their teacher’s hand at their school in Therwil, which is outside Zurich. The brothers were reportedly granted a waiver but education officials decided that a teacher has the right to demand a handshake.
The...