a place forbidden to the public
Each CEP is divided into two almost impenetrable sections: A section for the administration and a section for housing 200 to 300 people. The first section answers directly to the Federal Office of Migration (ODM) and handles the management of the centre as well as the complete asylum procedure. To manage the other section for housing, the ODM has hired two private companies that handle the assistance and the security for the centre.
The ORS Service Ltd. Company (Organisation für Regie – und Spezialaufträge) accompanies the asylum seekers during their stay. It takes care of the cleaning, infirmary and the meals. This Zurich based company in full expansion has just taken over the contracts for the provincial Centres for asylum seekers in Soleure and Fribourg that had been run by Caritas and the Red cross for the last 25 years. The Swiss security company Securitas that is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year is in charge of security, registering new arrivals, searches and managing the entries and exits.
In regards to civil society, the ODM and the different Swiss churches signed in 2002 after long negotiations a deal that authorised the presence at the CEP, by rotation, of a catholic and protestant chaplain. In this same way Swiss charitable societies obtained since 40 years that the law impose the presence of an external observer at meetings with asylum seekers when asylum is requested.
The CEPs are at the heart of the Swiss plan of action for asylum seekers and this is where there fate is decided. They are the best possible observatories to see how the laws on asylum are actually applied. Here any misconceptions are dispelled. Proof of this is that the quasi permanent renewing of legislation on asylum has immediate repercussions on the daily life in these centres. An example is the adoption of a new federal law on asylum that doubled the maximum stay which had until then been limited to 30 days. This extension to 60 days without changing housing standards has simply worsened living conditions that were already difficult. These centres were originally designed for stays of 2 to 5 days.
I chose to focus on the functioning of the CEP in Vallorbe, at the border between France and Switzerland, inaugurated on November 13, 2000. This centre has already welcomed 40 000 people. It handles one third of asylum requests in the country and each week between 50 and 70 new people show up asking for asylum.
The Vallorbe Grand Hotel
The CEP in Vallorbe is an imposing building riddled with cameras and high barbed wire fences. Only authorized personnel (asylum seekers, cleaning and security staff and delivery people, etc…) can enter this secured zone. Security guards control the opening of the gate that gives on to the courtyard. For an observer used to his personal freedoms, it is difficult not to think of this place as a prison.
This wasn’t always the case for this building that used to be a luxury hotel, the construction of which was financed by the English and finished in 1896 the same year that electricity was installed in Vallorbe. It was then bought by the state in 1954 and turn into military barracks.
The building is situated near the train station, on the edge of the forest away from the town centre. It is the only CEP in the country that is situated far from any urban centre. If you follow the tracks a little further you go through a tunnel that leads to France. This tunnel was built at the beginning of the 20th century between 1910 and 1915 by hundreds of Italian workers that were housed in a neighbourhood that came to be known as the “negro village” because they came out of the tunnel completely covered in black dust.
Once in a while an asylum seeker crosses the tunnel on foot to reach the CEP; this revives memories for the older people in town of the Mobilisation. They remember when the tunnel was walled in by the Germans in July 1941 to discourage people from crossing. A German deserter managed to make his way across and found refuge in Switzerland. Jews used the same way across only to be turned back at the end of the tunnel by Swiss soldiers waiting for them.
An eyesore on the landscape
Imposed by Bern, the transformation of the old barracks into a centre for asylum seekers caused disapproval among the population in vallorbe. The people who opposed the decision said they did not want foreigners coming to dirty their town and that they preferred the soldiers who were clean and spend their money in town. “The hotel up there” as it soon came to be known by locals quickly became an eyesore on the landscape.
Even though the building is discreet and out of town it is still to this day hated and criticized. Since its opening the locals still look down on the arrival of around 60 asylum seekers each week. Many frown upon the asylum seekers who huddle up in the local train station in order to keep warm. They say it gives a negative image of their town which is linked by the TGV to Paris.
It must be said that public opinion was marked by a tragedy that took place in 2005. An ex-asylum seeker from Lithuania stabbed three people including a pregnant woman on a train at the station. The communal council has asked several times in vain to have the CEP closed down or to at least revoke the asylum seekers leave privileges.
These tensions have been somewhat diminished by the economic windfall that the CEP has brought to the region. Several local businesses trade with the CEP and around ten locals work there. Some locals close to the ecumenical circles have created ARAVOH an association that welcomes and offers coffee and legal advice to asylum seekers in a small room attached to the train station.
The CEP is open all year 24 hours a day and about 90 people are needed to accommodate the constant influx of migrants. The staff can be divided into 5 categories: auditors from the federal office of migration (23 people), representatives of help associations (10 people), assistants (22 people), security (19 people) and chaplains (4 people). For security reasons the staff retain their anonymity by using only first names: Mr. Claude, security, Mrs. Estrella, assistant. Moreover no employee is allowed to give their address or phone number to an asylum seeker within the centre.
This intense collective life fades as soon as one leaves the CEP. The building regains its status as a secret, well guarded concrete block. For the locals it is often a place that instils fear and loathing. Some think of it as a hotel where the guests don’t pay but are well treated for others such as human rights activists it is similar to a prison or detention camp. It has an air of mystery for everyone similar to the fog that often covers the little town in which it resides.
No CEP in Switzerland has ever before been the subject of a film and the media is normally kept at bay. It is comparable to a black hole during debates on asylum but this is where the fate of tens of thousands of men women and children are decided. In a time where asylum seekers are pigeon-holed into good or bad shedding some light on this centre could create new ways of tackling the issue.
The Centres for registry and processing
All asylum requests are treated in one of the five centres that have been set up by the Swiss Confederation in Basel, Kreuzlingen (TG), Alstätten (SG), Vallorbe (VD) and Chiasso (TI). All asylum seekers who arrive in Switzerland have to go through one of these centres and remain there until the procedure is over. While they wait for an answer from the Federal Office of Migration (ODM), they remain up to sixty days in these secure semi-detention centres in which every aspect of life is meticulously regulated.
