Village resists pilot plan for disruptive asylum seekers

A pilot project to house disruptive asylum seekers in a separate unit at the Flumenthal federal asylum centre is facing strong opposition in neighbouring Deitingen, SRF reported. The Swiss State Secretariat for Migration wants to test the arrangement, but the project remains uncertain.

The plan would place asylum seekers who behave problematically and disrupt operations in an enclosed section within the centre. At an extraordinary municipal meeting in Deitingen, residents expressed concern about security in the village. One woman said the police knew who the disruptive people were and that they did not belong in the community.

Christian Scheuermeyer, president of Deitingen’s FDP branch, said internal separation was not a solution because the asylum seekers could still move freely around the village. He called for special centres for problematic asylum seekers to be built outside residential areas.

Other residents support the pilot project. The Franz couple said the trial would be in the village’s interests.

Reto Kormann, a spokesperson for the State Secretariat for Migration, rejected the criticism. He said the centre had strict rules and that the new accommodation model would allow security staff to be deployed more effectively. Outside the centre, responsibility lay with the cantonal police.

When the Flumenthal federal asylum centre opened in 2019, Deitingen experienced noise disturbances and thefts, according to SRF. The migration authorities hired a security service, and a shuttle bus takes residents directly to Solothurn. Kormann said the authorities were doing a great deal for the village.

Until November 2025, disruptive asylum seekers were temporarily housed at the special centre in Les Verrières, in the canton of Neuchâtel. The municipality terminated the agreement after an asylum seeker set fire to a forest hut. The facility had been Switzerland’s only centre for disruptive asylum seekers.

The special centre operated from December 2018 to November 2025 and housed between five and 10 people who had behaved conspicuously in regular federal asylum centres. After repeated incidents in spring 2025, Les Verrières terminated the operating agreement. The centre was finally closed at the end of November.

The search for alternatives has proved difficult. Since 2014, the State Secretariat for Migration has examined 30 potential locations without success. In 2023, it invited all cantons to inspect the centre in Les Verrières, but no canton showed interest.

A similar pilot project is planned in Pasture in the canton of Ticino, but the canton and municipality oppose it. Ticino Justice Director Norman Gobbi of the Lega wants tougher measures but does not want a special centre in the canton, saying Ticino was already doing enough. The Pasture project has been suspended.

Deitingen’s municipal meeting approved a counterproposal to the pilot project. The municipality agreed to the plan only on conditions, including the removal of problematic asylum seekers from the Flumenthal centre. A committee appointed by the municipality would decide who was considered disruptive.

The migration authorities want to discuss the counterproposal with the municipality. Kormann said decisions could not be made on the basis of a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down, with anyone able to declare that a person did not belong and should be removed. The pilot project will proceed only with the consent of the canton and municipality.