A first group of 42 refugees is scheduled to arrive in Switzerland in the first week of April as part of an emergency operation to evacuate endangered migrants from Libyan detention centres. This is according to UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean Situation Vincent Cochetel in an interview with swissinfo.ch. Asked to confirm this information, the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) said that a first group was expected to arrive in April and that they are mostly vulnerable single women who have been evacuated from Libya to Niger. However, their statement did not give any numbers. Switzerland announced in December that it has agreed to take up to 80 particularly vulnerable refugees as part of an emergency plan by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to evacuate thousands of people from detention centres in Libya. Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga described this as an “urgent humanitarian measure” and said it was justified because of the ...
