Highest number of refugees in decades

The annual number of applications for asylum has exceeded the 2022 figure several times in the past 35 years, most notably in 1991 (41,663 applications), 1998–999 (42,979 and 47,513 respectively) and 2015–2016 (39,523 and 27,207 respectively). What made 2022 unusual was the fact that an additional 74,959 people applied for protection status S. The total number of asylum and protection applications in 2022 was 99,470.

The largest number of asylum seekers came from Afghanistan in 2022, with 7,054 applications being made. This figure includes 95 family reunifications, 168 births and 73 multiple applications. This places the number of new asylum applications from people originating in Afghanistan at 6,718. Other common countries of origin in 2022 included Türkiye (3,788 primary applications and 1,003 secondary applications), Eritrea (426 primary applications and 1,404 secondary applications), Algeria (1,341 primary applications and 21 secondary applications) and Syria (725 primary applications and 527 secondary applications).

There were 204,374 asylum seekers in Switzerland at the end of 2022, a rise of 56 % over the previous year (2021: 130,997). This figure includes 76,195 recognised refugees, 62,820 people with protection status S and 44,779 temporarily admitted persons. The remaining 20,580 belonged to various other categories, including those with pending applications and special cases.

The first instance dealt with 17,599 applications for asylum in 2022; SEM granted asylum in 4,816 of these cases. This is an overall recognition rate of 30.6% of all decisions (cases where asylum is granted or denied, as well as applications that were dismissed).