The Chinese government is pushing to renew a secret agreement between Switzerland and China that allows Chinese security officials to enter the country at Swiss taxpayers’ expense, the Guardian reported on December 9.
The five-year “readmission agreement,” reportedly signed in 2015, arranges for Chinese agents to travel to Switzerland and meet with Swiss authorities in hopes of deporting suspected Chinese citizens. The agreement is set to expire at the end of this year.
Unlike more than 50 similar deals that Switzerland has signed with other countries, the agreement has never been made public.
Safeguard Defenders, an Asian human rights campaign group, says it shows an extraordinary commitment to secrecy, and that the agreement itself is not open to the public.
According to Swiss immigration officials cited by international media, Switzerland sent 13 Chinese nationals to Beijing after the agreement was implemented, but has no knowledge of their whereabouts because the Chinese side refused to provide information to its partners.
Readmission agreements are a routine part of international law, but Safeguards Defenders says that the agreement Beijing signed with Switzerland in 2015 is “completely different” from other agreements.
Margaret Lewis, a law professor at Seton Hall in the United States, said the deal was extremely favorable to the Chinese and went beyond normal immigration information-sharing arrangements.
The agreement sparked outrage in Switzerland, where the news was first reported by a local news media outlet in August, amid growing international concern about China’s crackdown on dissidents and opposition activists. Until then, however, the deal had been kept so secret that neither the Swiss parliament nor the Foreign Affairs Council knew of its existence.
The Swiss Secretariat for Migration (SEM) defended the deal as a necessary measure to curb illegal immigration, saying it controlled the information provided to Chinese officials.
Human rights groups argue that Switzerland risks violating the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits refugees from returning to dangerous places. They are concerned that there is no mechanism to monitor the treatment of repatriates upon their return to China. Are they subject to torture or other ill-treatment?
Tibetan and Uighur asylum seekers are excluded, as it is understood that only those who are not at risk of persecution in their home countries will be targeted. This protection measure, however, is not included in the agreement.
The agreement could also endanger people leaving Hong Kong, according to a person living in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Continued agreement between China and Switzerland could put Switzerland in an “awkward or immoral situation,” the person said.
In recent years, China has become increasingly active in using bilateral and multilateral channels (such as Interpol), as well as unofficial channels, to enter other countries in order to track down Chinese citizens of interest to them. The treatment of detainees in China has also raised international concerns about human rights in China.
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