Asylum seekers’ rights not negotiable: minister
Published: 09 Aug 2013 12:55 GMT+02:00 | Print version
Updated: 09 Aug 2013 12:55 GMT+02:00
Swiss Federal Councillor Simonetta Sommaruga says there is no legal basis for a ban on asylum seekers using public swimming pools.
- Migration boss defends Aargau public pool ban (07 Aug 13)
- Asylum seekers face public pool ban (06 Aug 13)
Speaking on the issue for the first time on Friday, the justice minister said: “constitutional rights are for everyone and are not negotiable”, the Blick newspaper reported in its online edition.
“There is no general, preventive ban on using the pool. There are no grounds for this and no legal basis,” the minister said.
Sommaruga was responding to a decision by the authorities in Bremgarten in the canton of Aargau to bar residents in a new asylum centre there from public sport venues and schools.
Earlier this week the head of the Federal Office for Migration, Mario Gattiker, told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper it was “totally normal” for the town authorities to limit asylum seekers’ freedom of movement.
Bremgarten in the canton of Aargau is hosting the first temporary federal asylum centre to open since June when voters approved changes to the law designed to speed up the asylum process.
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