Switzerland Adopts EU Migration Pact Rules Introducing Biometric Border Screening

The Swiss Federal Council has adopted a package of statutory and regulatory amendments to implement the European Union’s Migration and Asylum Pact, including mandatory biometric screening at the external border. The Council approved the measures yesterday, and the package is set to take effect on June 12.

As a country associated with the Schengen and Dublin systems, Switzerland is required to transpose large parts of the EU reform into national law even though it is not an EU member. The adopted ordinances amend several existing instruments, including Asylum Ordinances 1 and 3, the Ordinance on Entry and the Issuance of Visas, and the Ordinance on Admission, Residence and Employment.

The reform introduces three main mechanisms. It establishes mandatory biometric screening at the external border, sets tighter deadlines for transfers carried out under the Dublin system, which determines the country responsible for an asylum claim, and creates a permanent solidarity mechanism intended to support front-line states facing disproportionate arrivals.

From mid-June, people stopped at the Swiss border will undergo the same harmonized pre-entry checks applied across the rest of the Schengen area. Under the screening procedure, that includes verification of identity, a preliminary vulnerability check, a security check, and the collection and transmission of biometric data. The Swiss regulations also set out procedures for screening interviews and provide for the accreditation of new Eurodac fingerprint experts.

Eurodac, the EU’s shared database for asylum and irregular-migration records, is central to the screening model. The system is being expanded so that, alongside fingerprints, it stores additional biometric data including facial images, allowing screening results to be checked and shared across participating states. The harmonized procedure is designed so that an identity and biometric check carried out at one external border point is recorded consistently for use elsewhere in the area.

The Swiss adoption aligns the country’s timeline with the EU pact, whose regulations are due to come into force across member states in June. For Switzerland, the practical change is that border and asylum processing will run on the same biometric screening rules as neighbouring Schengen states, applied at the point a person is first encountered at the external border.

Sources: VisaHQ, Council of the European Union

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By the ID Tech Editorial Team