Switzerland’s National Council has backed a series of proposals that could tighten parts of the country’s asylum and migration system, including changes affecting Afghan women seeking protection, tougher action against countries that refuse to cooperate with returns, and possible loss of Swiss citizenship for certain dual nationals convicted of terrorism or other extremely serious crimes.
The votes took place on 17 September 2026 during an extraordinary parliamentary session focused on the European Union and asylum policy. However, the changes are not yet law and have not yet entered into force. The approved motions must still be considered by the Council of States, Switzerland’s upper chamber, before they can become binding instructions to the Federal Council. Swiss parliamentary rules require both chambers to approve a motion.
The Federal Council had recommended rejection of all nine motions debated during the special session. Despite that opposition, the National Council approved four significant proposals while rejecting several others.
Four Measures Advance
The National Council’s decisions cover four separate areas.
- First, lawmakers backed targeted measures against countries of origin that do not cooperate with Switzerland over the readmission of people whose asylum claims have been rejected.
- Second, the chamber supported a motion seeking to reverse the special asylum practice introduced for Afghan women and girls in 2023.
- Third, lawmakers supported expanding the circumstances in which Swiss citizenship could be withdrawn from dual nationals convicted of particularly serious offences or terrorism.
- Fourth, the National Council called on the government to reject a possible change to European rules governing unemployment compensation for cross-border workers.
These votes signal political pressure for a tougher approach, but they should not be confused with immediate changes to the immigration system.
Afghan Asylum Cases
One of the most important immigration-related votes concerns women and girls from Afghanistan.
The National Council voted 101 to 84 in favour of a motion from Swiss People’s Party politician Gregor Rutz seeking to reverse the practice introduced by the State Secretariat for Migration, or SEM, in July 2023.
Under the SEM practice that came into force on 17 July 2023, the agency concluded that the deteriorating human-rights situation under Taliban rule meant Afghan women and girls could qualify as victims of discriminatory legislation and religiously motivated persecution.
Importantly, SEM states that applications are still examined case by case. Its official guidance says women and girls from Afghanistan may qualify for refugee status because of the extensive restrictions imposed on their fundamental rights, but applicants still go through the asylum procedure.
That distinction matters because some reports have described the current system as automatically granting asylum to Afghan women. The official SEM position is more precise: the situation of Afghan women and girls forms a basis for recognising persecution, while individual applications continue to be assessed.
The motion approved by the National Council seeks to change that practice. Parliamentary reporting described the proposal as moving away from the current approach and towards a stricter individual assessment, with provisional admission potentially being used instead of asylum where the legal requirements for asylum are not fulfilled.
Justice Minister Beat Jans opposed the motion and told lawmakers that individual examination already takes place under the present system.
Because the Council of States has not yet approved the motion, Afghan women applying for asylum should not assume that the current SEM rules have already changed.
Citizenship Removal
The National Council also backed a proposal concerning dual Swiss nationals convicted of terrorism or other particularly serious offences.
The motion seeks to instruct the Federal Council to provide for withdrawal of Swiss citizenship from certain dual nationals and their expulsion from Switzerland following convictions for the most serious crimes.
The proposal also covers participation in a criminal or terrorist organisation and the financing or support of such organisations. A broader attempt to include people merely classified as security threats was not accepted by the National Council.
The proposal applies specifically to dual nationals because withdrawing Swiss nationality from a person who has no other nationality would raise separate legal issues concerning statelessness.
The Federal Council opposed the proposal. Jans argued during the parliamentary debate that deprivation of citizenship is a serious intervention and raised concerns over proportionality. The National Council nevertheless backed the main elements of the motion.
Again, this does not mean Switzerland has introduced a new automatic deportation law for dual nationals. Further parliamentary approval is required.
Returns Cooperation
Another measure approved by the National Council targets countries that do not cooperate with Switzerland in taking back their nationals after unsuccessful asylum procedures.
The chamber voted 126 to 64 for a motion from the FDP parliamentary group calling for sanctions against states that fail to cooperate sufficiently with readmissions. Parliamentary reporting also said the proposal seeks a legal framework allowing Switzerland to negotiate solutions involving safe countries.
Returns are a recurring challenge for European asylum systems because a final negative asylum decision does not automatically mean removal can immediately take place. Authorities may still need identity documents, travel documents and cooperation from the person’s country of nationality.
The National Council’s proposal is intended to increase leverage over countries considered unwilling to cooperate.
The exact form of any future sanctions would depend on subsequent implementation and legislation. There is therefore no new general sanction regime in force as a result of the September 17 vote alone.
Cross-Border Benefits
The fourth motion is connected more closely to Switzerland’s relationship with the European Union than to asylum.
The National Council wants the Federal Council to oppose a potential change to European rules on unemployment benefits for cross-border workers.
At present, Switzerland participates in European coordination of social-security systems under its free-movement arrangements with the EU. The Federal Council has said that cross-border workers currently contribute around CHF600 million a year to Swiss unemployment insurance, while Switzerland reimburses approximately CHF300 million annually to EU member states.
The Federal Council argued that it was too early to decide whether Switzerland should accept or reject the revised European rules because the EU process had not yet been completed and the financial and economic consequences would need to be analysed.
The National Council nevertheless backed the motion demanding rejection of the proposed change.
Other Plans Rejected
The special session did not result in approval of every proposal for tighter immigration rules.
The National Council rejected a motion calling for mandatory expulsion following prison sentences of at least one year. The government argued that such an approach would conflict with higher-ranking legal requirements for individual examination and pointed to Switzerland’s existing hardship provisions.
Lawmakers also rejected a proposal that would have given local communities a veto over the construction of new federal asylum centres.
A proposal calling for an exit strategy from Protection Status S, used largely for people displaced from Ukraine, also failed to win a majority. Parliamentary reporting said the government considers stabilisation in Ukraine insufficient to end the system and intends Protection Status S to remain available until March 2028 under the current strategy.
Proposals from the political left concerning residence permits for people who have remained provisionally admitted for more than ten years and restrictions on transfers of medically vulnerable children were also rejected.
Government Pushback
The Federal Council opposed all nine motions considered in the extraordinary session.
Its position came against a background of declining asylum pressure according to statements made during the parliamentary debate.
Jans told lawmakers that asylum applications had been falling for a third consecutive year and that the backlog of pending cases had fallen from around 10,000 in 2024 to approximately 2,500. He also said the number of asylum applicants ultimately remaining in Switzerland had been reduced significantly. These figures were reported by the parliamentary news service as statements made by the justice minister during the debate.
Nevertheless, Jans acknowledged that the government planned further measures under Switzerland’s wider Asylum Strategy 2027, saying existing measures were having an effect but that more proposals would follow.
What Happens Next?
For migrants and asylum applicants, the most important point is that nothing in the September 17 votes should be treated as an immediate change in application rules.
Under the Swiss parliamentary system, a motion approved by one chamber normally moves to the other chamber. Both the National Council and Council of States must agree before the motion becomes an instruction to the Federal Council. If the second chamber changes the text, additional parliamentary consideration may be required.
That means the four measures approved by the National Council remain part of an ongoing political and legislative process.
If the Council of States approves them, the Federal Council would then have to implement the mandate or, where legislation is necessary, bring forward the required legal changes.
Some proposals—particularly the withdrawal of citizenship, sanctions against non-cooperating countries and changes affecting asylum decisions—could therefore require additional legislation and implementation work before applicants see any practical change.
What Applicants Should Know
People currently applying for asylum in Switzerland should continue to rely on the rules and official SEM procedures that are in force today.
For Afghan women and girls in particular, SEM’s existing guidance still states that the July 2023 practice applies and that applications continue to be assessed individually.
There is currently no confirmed implementation date for the National Council’s proposed reversal.
Similarly, the citizenship proposal does not create an immediate new rule under which dual nationals are automatically stripped of nationality following a conviction.
The next key development will be the position taken by the Council of States.
Until that chamber has considered the motions and any subsequent legal changes have been adopted, the September votes are best understood as an important parliamentary step towards possible tighter asylum and migration rules—not the final introduction of those rules.