Asylum Seekers in Switzerland Struggle Due to Lack of Refugee Identity

Many asylum seekers in Switzerland are finding life hard in the country as they lack the proper refugee identity documents.

More than 30,000 asylum seekers are living in Switzerland on a temporary F permit.

"[Asylum seekers with] the F status they get 11 francs and 50 cents each day, to manage their lives. It means to buy the food, to buy the soap, then you get specially paid. You get your apartment, so the rooms to live, and the health insurance," said Kurt Strehler, a refugee department official in the canton of Uri for the Swiss Red Cross.

Those granted a refugee identity can get 960 Swiss francs (about 980 U.S. dollars) of government relief per month.

In Switzerland, even a bottle of water at the supermarket will cost around five Swiss francs, so asylum seekers with a temporary permit have to buy life necessities at the flea markets.

At least 15,000 asylum seekers with F permits have stayed in the country for more than seven years, some have even stayed for 16 years.

"We don't have a chance to have the residential papers here in Switzerland for Iraqi people. Only F, some kind of protection for the Iraqi people until the situation gets better in Iraq, and they send them back," said an Iraqi asylum seekers who has been in Switzerland for over a decade.

The Swiss government has arranged for the refugees to attend social service programs that they can earn around 200 Swiss francs (about 204 U.S. dollars) each month besides government relief, including bike repairs and kitchen work.

"Now I got seven years. In Switzerland, we don't have any profession, now I'm starting to [be trained as a kitchen assistant]. So, at the end of this I will try it," said an asylum seeker from Sudan.
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