{"id":171,"date":"2020-03-28T10:23:53","date_gmt":"2020-03-28T10:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/switzerland\/?page_id=171"},"modified":"2026-05-07T07:50:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T07:50:02","slug":"unhcr-switzerland-and-liechtenstein-osl","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/switzerland\/unhcr-switzerland-and-liechtenstein-osl\/","title":{"rendered":"UNHCR Switzerland and Liechtenstein"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Swiss Government is responsible for the protection of asylum-seekers\nand refugees in Switzerland. The State Secretary for Migration (SEM) has the\nresponsibility to process asylum claims and to decide whether somebody is\ngranted protection in Switzerland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> UNHCR supports the Swiss government in maintaining protection regimes  which comply with international standards and advocates for the rights  of asylum-seekers, refugees and stateless persons. This work includes  access to asylum, quality of asylum procedures and judicial engagement  as well as women and children at risk and statelessness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UNHCR has a country office for Switzerland and Liechtenstein, but the Office is not involved in the Swiss asylum procedure, does not intervene in individual cases and cannot offer any individual counselling. Legal counselling for asylum-seekers and refugees is offered by specialized counselling organisations (list in <a aria-label=\"French  (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.osar.ch\/aide-pour-refugie-et-requerant-dasile\/protection-juridique\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">French <\/a>or <a aria-label=\"German (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fluechtlingshilfe.ch\/hilfe-fuer-asylsuchende\/rechtsschutz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">German<\/a>). UNHCR closely cooperates with these organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>For more information about UNHCR in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, please visit:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/dach\/ch-de\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>website<\/strong><\/a> (in German or French)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UNHCR.ch\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Facebook page<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Our <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unhcr_ch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>X<\/strong><\/a><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/unhcr_ch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> <\/a><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unhcr_ch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>page<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-ad2f72ca wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<p>You can also contact us via e-mail at <a href=\"mailto:swibe@unhcr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>swibe@unhcr.org<\/strong><\/a> OR<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"hcr-help-webrtc-block-wrapper\"><button onclick=\"hcrHelpWebRTCOpenModal()\" class=\"hcr-help-webrtc-trigger-modal-button hcr-help-webrtc-trigger-modal-button-blue\">call the UNHCR toll-free number from your browser.<\/button><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Calls are answered in English, Ukrainian, Russian and Arabic from Monday to Friday, 8 am to 5 pm.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:14px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If you are currently located in <u>Liechtenstein<\/u>, please visit: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/liechtenstein\/\">UNHCR Liechtenstein &#8211; Help for refugees and asylum-seekers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fdf799\"><strong>\u203c\ufe0fNeither UNHCR, IOM, SEM, nor the legal advice offices in the federal reception centres take money for any services. Their help is always free of charge. You should not be asked, at any point, to pay for any of the services provided.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Swiss Government is responsible for the protection of asylum-seekers and refugees in Switzerland. The State Secretary for Migration (SEM) has the responsibility to process asylum claims and to decide whether somebody is granted protection in Switzerland. UNHCR supports the Swiss government in maintaining protection regimes which comply with international standards and advocates for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-171","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/switzerland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/switzerland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/switzerland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/switzerland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/switzerland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/switzerland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3044,"href":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/switzerland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/171\/revisions\/3044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/switzerland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}