Urgent request to the City of Baden in August 2020
The City of Baden is asked to comment on the following questions:
“1) Do you share the view that, in principle, sufficient structures would be in place to receive asylum seekers in Switzerland now?
2) Do you have existing structures or buildings in your city that could be used to accommodate additional refugees?
3) Are you prepared to take in additional refugees in your city (from camps on the Greek islands, from sea rescues in the Mediterranean or via the UNHCR resettlement programme) in addition to the people allocated by means of quotas?
4) Will you signal such willingness to the federal government and the SEM and also communicate it to the public?
5) What other efforts are you making to ensure that the right to asylum is upheld even in times of crisis and that Switzerland’s humanitarian tradition continues?”
Urgent_Request
City Council response in September 2020
In the reply letter, the city council basically expresses a positive attitude towards accepting refugees: “If the federal government and the canton create the legal requirements […] the city of Baden is prepared to consider additional admissions”. The willingness to accept refugees is to be communicated to the federal government via the city’s social policy initiative.
Reply-City-Baden-Emergency-Inquiry
In August 2020, letters were sent to various municipalities and city governments to continue building pressure for the reception of refugees from the Greek camps: “It is important now not to resign but to remain active. We already have the commitment of the eight biggest cities to take in refugees, but we need more. For this purpose, we have created a letter template that you can simply fill out with your city and your name and print it out. Please send the answers to Seebrücke and to us at info@evakuieren-jetzt.ch. You can find the letter template at www.evakuieren-jetzt.ch/files/Dringliche_Anfrage.pdf“, says the Evacuate NOW appeal.