Open day in Altstätten as the new federal asylum centre prepares to open

The State Secretariat for Migration has opened its new federal asylum centre in Altstätten, in the canton of St Gallen, to the public. The facility will start operating at the beginning of September.

The building covers 11,500 square metres and cost 47 million francs. It will employ 106 people, including federal staff, security personnel and support workers. The dining hall has 180 seats. The site already housed a registration centre in the 1990s, later decommissioned.

Federal councillor Beat Jans linked the opening to the principle underpinning the system: "We protect people because they have an inviolable dignity." The head of the St Gallen security and justice department, Christof Hartmann of the Swiss People's Party, asked instead that responsibility not be quietly shifted onto cantons or municipalities.

How a federal centre works

Federal asylum centres are the first stage of the procedure. Applicants stay there during the investigation phase, which lasts a maximum of 140 days. Registration, hearings and, in cases with a swift outcome, the decision itself take place in that period. Only applications requiring longer checks are assigned to the cantons.

The mayor of Altstätten, Ruedi Mattle of the Green Liberals, and Philip Ziegler, a scientific assistant for the eastern Switzerland asylum region, accompanied the tours. Open days have become standard practice at every new opening, following local opposition that slowed several projects in recent years.

Ticino hosts the federal centre at Chiasso-Pasture, covering the Ticino and central Switzerland asylum region. The model is identical, and the distribution across the six regions follows a formula based on cantonal population.