The Guardian reports that a secret agreement between China and Switzerland allows Chinese state security personnel to enter Switzerland at will to access Chinese people of interest, and human rights groups are concerned that this not only affects the personal safety of Chinese political refugees in Switzerland, but could also endanger Chinese and even Hong Kong political refugees in other Schengen Convention countries.
The agreement, called the “readmission agreement,” was signed in 2015, but has not been made public like more than 50 other bilateral agreements, nor has it been considered by the Swiss parliament or the Foreign Affairs Committee, nor has the funding for Chinese officials to come to Switzerland been separately identified. The funding for Chinese officials to come to Switzerland is not a separate item. It was only after a local newspaper revealed the existence of the agreement in August this year that members of parliament learned of it and passed a resolution requesting the authorities to consult parliament before extending the agreement. As the agreement expired on Monday (7), its contents were revealed.
According to an official English translation obtained by Safeguard Defenders, an organization that focuses on human rights in Asia, the agreement essentially allows Chinese state security personnel to meet with Chinese nationals whom the Swiss authorities want to deport, with provisions that allow Chinese State Security officials to “Once approved, Switzerland is no longer authorized to speak to or approve the Chinese officials, but the officials may enter Switzerland in an unofficial capacity, and the Swiss side must ensure that their identities remain confidential and that their reports to the Swiss government remain confidential. The Swiss side must ensure that their identities are kept confidential and that their reports to the Swiss government are kept confidential.
“Protective Guardian notes that while Switzerland has entered into similar re-entry deals with other countries, they are all reciprocal, but the agreements with China are not, i.e., Swiss officials do not have the right to meet with the repatriated person in China. In addition, other agreements generally limit the activities of foreign officials to meeting with repatriates and must be open and official, but the agreement with China is too secretive and allows officials to operate in an unofficial capacity, which is unusual. The organization’s president, Dahlin, is also concerned that the provisions do not restrict Chinese officials from doing anything other than their official duties, and that if the people in question are operating in an unofficial capacity, it means they can enter on tourist visas and move freely and unregulated within all European Schengen states, without the other Schengen states knowing that the national security personnel are operating in their countries.
Swiss immigration officials seeking to extend the agreement stressed that the agreement is vital to the fight against illegal immigration and that the authorities will strictly control the information on deportees issued to the officials concerned. Swiss officials also said the agreement has been used only once since it was signed, in 2016, to help review the status of four refugee claimants among 13 forcibly returned individuals.
This guarantee is not specified in the agreement, although immigration officials emphasized that refugee claimants from Xinjiang and Tibet are not included in the agreement. Guangzhou-based rights activist Wang Aizhong is concerned that extending the agreement would be detrimental to the Hong Kong people concerned and could put Switzerland in an awkward or immoral position, as some fled to Europe because they could not stand the increased controls and repression in China.
Margaret Lewis, a law professor at Seton Hall University, told the Guardian that the agreement is extremely beneficial to the Chinese side, as almost anyone who is illegally in Switzerland can be contacted by state security personnel, and that those whom the Chinese side is willing to send to Switzerland are, of course, those who are of interest to the Chinese government, and by allowing these officials to move freely, there is no guarantee that they will not force their interest in Chinese citizens abroad.
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