Switzerland

Migration enforcement within birth registration process

In Switzerland, children of migrants with irregular status (Sans-Papiers) are at risk of non-registration and statelessness. In 2021, the CRC recommended that Switzerland ensure that parents without regular residence status who register their children are not reported to migration authorities following a civil society submission emphasizing the importance of this matter.

Promising Practices

Since 2011, an Instruction to the Civil Registry Ordinance on the registration of non-nationals has explicitly prohibited public officials in Switzerland from reporting irregular migrants to migration authorities when they are registering the births of their children. This is often referred to as a firewall policy. This aligns with 2017 guidance from the CRC and CMW in a Joint General Comment stating data sharing between health providers or civil servants responsible for registration with immigration enforcement authorities should be prohibited.