‘Cruel’ Swiss government video suggests Ukrainians to leave Switzerland

Swiss authorities have welcomed Ukrainian refugees with open arms when Russia invaded their country in February. But now the government is suggesting they should return home, at least according to a new video.

Published: 21 June 2022 16:40 CEST

'Cruel' Swiss government video suggests Ukrainians to leave Switzerland

Refugees from Ukraine are seen in temporary accomodation in a sports hall in Przemysl, in eastern Poland on February 28, 2022. - Overall, more than half a million people have fled Ukraine since its Soviet-era master Moscow launched a full-scale invasion on February 24, with more than half fleeing into neighbouring EU and NATO member Poland, the United Nations said on February 28, 2022. (Photo by Wojtek RADWANSKI / AFP)

The four-minute video encourages refugees to return to their home countries as they have “little chance of obtaining asylum in Switzerland anyway”. To make it more attractive, the Swiss government is offering financial aid of up to 3,000 francs if refugees return to their countries voluntarily rather than being deported.

The animated video, which the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) posted on its YouTube channel, was originally meant for non-European refugees, who constituted the entirety of asylum seekers in Switzerland before Ukrainians started to pour in.

In it, a black man called Fulan Afulani is told by kind Swiss government “advisors” that he would be better off to take the money the government is giving him and go back to his country of origin— the offer which Fulan gratefully accepts.

In the Ukrainian version, the Fulan Afulani is renamed Bohdan Petrenko, but the rest of the message is the same: take the money and go back home.

According to a report in Blick, “indignant” refugees from Ukraine turned to a Switzerland-based Ukrainian lawyer Elina Iakovleva, who pointed out the obvious inconsistency in the video: that a white-skinned Bohdan cannot be believably portrayed, even in an animated form, by a dark-skinned Fulan.

Iakovleva also brought up another inconsistency: unlike other refugees in Switzerland, Ukrainians receive temporary protection status, the so-called S permit, and not political asylum. Also, Ukrainians don’t even need a visa to enter Switzerland, whereas refugees from outside Europe do.

“In any case, how can SEM suggest that women and children should return to a country where bombs are falling and rape is commonplace? The message in the video is cynical and cruel,” she added.

The video, in English, is here.

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The study said the security picture in Europe had sharply deteriorated, notably due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, power politics and increasingly destabilised crisis regions.

The defence ministry established the study commission on security policy in July 2023, and tasked it with outlining security policy adapted to current threats.

Its report contained more than 100 recommendations, chiefly concerning Swiss neutrality, international cooperation, armaments policy and the orientation of security strategy.

Switzerland’s long-standing position has been one of well-armed military neutrality.

The landlocked nation is neither in NATO nor the EU, while its neighbours Germany, Italy and France are in both, and Austria is an EU member.

“The neutrality policy must be revised, more focused on its security function and applied more flexibly,” a statement said.

A majority of the commission recommended that the neutrality policy be more closely aligned with the United Nations charter, with greater consideration of the distinction between aggressor and victim.

“Switzerland cannot represent a security gap in Europe,” and its location surrounded by the EU makes the need for defence cooperation “clear”, the report said.

“Neutrality is no obstacle to cooperation with NATO in security policy matters,” it added.

“Cooperation with NATO and the EU should be further deepened with the aim of a common defence capability and developing a genuine defence cooperation,” the statement said.

Switzerland should therefore set out its expectations from its own defence capabilities, and what it could offer to cooperation partners.

With the committee finding hybrid warfare was “the main threat to Switzerland”, the country’s arms industry should be strengthened and calibrated more closely to the threat situation.

Therefore, “access to EU and NATO cooperation projects should be ensured”.

The report also called for strengthened diplomatic efforts on international arms control and on regulating new technologies.

The report’s author said Russia’s aggression in Ukraine opened the door to a conflict with NATO, and said Switzerland’s neutrality did not guarantee it would not be attacked.

The study recommended increasing the defence budget to one percent of gross domestic product by 2030.

The report will feed into the broader 2025 security policy strategy.