Swiss authorities are under growing pressure over a surge in crime linked to young North African men moving through the country’s asylum system, with several cantons warning that repeat offenders are overwhelming police and prosecutors, even though their chances of being granted asylum are effectively nonexistent.
The issue was raised in the NZZ am Sonntag, which reported that Algerian, Moroccan, and Tunisian asylum applicants are not only almost always rejected, but are also disproportionately represented in theft and petty crime cases across several parts of Switzerland.
The problem is particularly prevalent in German-speaking cantons, where officials say they are being forced to increase patrols, speed up prosecutions, and tighten coordination in an attempt to curb offending before suspects disappear, reoffend, or move on.
According to the latest figures cited in the report, 2,127 Algerians applied for asylum in Switzerland last year, but only 0.3 percent were granted protection. The corresponding rates were 0.7 percent for Moroccans and 2.5 percent for Tunisians, all dramatically lower than for applicants from countries such as Eritrea and Afghanistan. Despite those negligible approval rates, Swiss authorities continue to process large numbers of applications from Arab nations, enabling applicants to stay in the country throughout the process, and often afterward.
A study by consulting firm Ecoplan, prepared for the federal government and cantons, identified North African asylum seekers as the main problem group in crime stats. The report said that although they tend to spend only a short period in Switzerland, almost 60 percent are accused of a crime during that time. The men involved are often referred to as “Harraga,” a term used for young North African migrants who travel without documents and are said to “burn their papers.”
Security officials in several cantons now say the scale of the problem may be even worse than initial figures suggest. In Thurgau, a recent security report highlighted a 242 percent rise in thefts from vehicles, with the number of cases climbing from 74 to 253. According to the report, half of the solved cases were committed by North African asylum seekers.
In Aargau, officials said a large share of thefts is also being carried out by men from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. Three-quarters of the 900 solved cases were attributed to suspects from those three countries. Authorities there also keep a list of repeat offenders, and 19 of the 50 names on that list are from the Maghreb nations. One 17-year-old Algerian, according to a police spokesman, was convicted last year of eight thefts from vehicles, along with shoplifting, burglaries, pickpocketing, and other offenses.
Similar warnings have been issued elsewhere. In Zurich, security director Mario Fehr said Algerians and Moroccans are especially noticeable in theft offenses of all kinds. Solothurn has announced the creation of a new cantonal body in part because of petty-crime repeat offenders in the asylum sector. In St. Gallen, the cantonal government said people from the Maghreb are keeping both police and prosecutors busy with stolen cell phones, car break-ins, and burglaries, often using multiple aliases.
Prosecutors in St. Gallen issued 1,765 penalty orders against this group alone last year. Florian Schneider, spokesman for the St. Gallen cantonal police, said some offenders were being encountered repeatedly within hours. “We saw some repeat offenders three times in a single day,” he said, describing a demoralizing cycle for law enforcement driven by low deterrence and relentless reoffending. He also said officers regularly encounter suspects who are “often hot-tempered and very disrespectful,” as cited by 20 Minuten.
Swiss authorities are attempting to respond with faster legal processing and tighter coordination between police and migration officials. At the federal level, the State Secretariat for Migration has pointed to several measures already introduced. Since the start of 2024, authorities have held strategic roundtables, recruited former police officers to improve information-sharing with regional forces, and set up a dedicated task force focused on repeat offenders. The government has also said it is accelerating asylum procedures and prioritizing the deportation of convicted criminals, with an initial assessment of the pilot effort expected in the coming months.
Critics argue that these steps do not go nearly far enough. Beat Stauffer, a veteran journalist and longtime Maghreb expert cited in the report, said the current situation is “madness” and called for a much tougher approach. He argued that Switzerland is spending tens of millions of francs each year processing applications from countries whose nationals are rejected at rates approaching 99 percent, only for many of those rejected to remain on emergency aid for years afterward. In his view, asylum claims from countries such as Algeria and Morocco should only be processed if compelling reasons can be demonstrated at the outset.
