GENEVA, Switzerland – Canton Geneva is set to build a new reception center for asylum-seekers near the airport said this week Swiss radio chain, RTS.
The center which will host around 250 persons is expected to be built in the Grand-Saconnex area by 2019, in what is now the Foyer de Tilleuls. Currently, the shelter hosts about 160 persons.

French-speaking Switzerland is to build three new reception centres, one in Fribourg, one in Geneva and one in canton Vaud— where opposition has been fierce.

This week SwissInfo reported how Switzerland has for two decades, successfully and quietly enacted a measure that is now causing stir in Denmark: confiscating cash and valuables from asylum seekers as they arrive to the country.

Switzerland not only confiscates money from newly-arrived asylees and refugees that “are in a measure to do so,” but once these persons begin working, also keeps 10% of their wages as reimbursement for their care. Up to CHF15,000 are set to be paid back to the Confederation within a 10-year period.

According to a source that I interviewed in reference to another story about asylum in Switzerland, these petitioners also receive better and longer benefits than in other European countries.

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