Amnesty International and several other groups launched a campaign on 3 February 2011 to criticize the "emergency assistance" (or "Nothilfe" in German) system in Switzerland for asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected. Amnesty International believes that the emergency assistance system violates the human rights and human dignity of failed asylum seekers.
The main objectives of the campaign are as follows:
- to force the cantons to review the emergency assistance program
- to ensure that particularly vulnerable persons, such as the traumatized, ill, pregnant women, unaccompanied minors, families with children and unmarried women, won't fall within the emergency assistance system and could instead benefit from ordinary social assistance
- to guarantee that children have the right to go to school and receive access to proper nutrition
On 7 February, a "Container Action" was organized in Zurich and which ran for one full week, until 13 February. The container symbolized the loneliness and isolation experienced by asylum seekers. It also demonstrated the inadequate space that asylum seekers live in, as well as the lack of any privacy. The container had photos and information about the emergency assistance system. Members of the Amnesty International English Speaking Group in Zurich participated in the action, collected signatures for a petition and distributed "Nothilfe" sets.
Below are a few photos from the container action in Zurich.
