Zug,19.10.2016
Canton vehemently refutes Blick newspaper's criticism over the way it acted
On Monday the national Blick newspaper published an article in which the cantonal authorities were severely criticised for the way they acted with regard to the planned deportation of an Afghan family to Norway.
The family was to be deported to the Scandinavian country in accordance with regulations of the Dublin Agreement, which stipulated that it was there where they should seek asylum.
The article accused the Zug Department of Public Safety of misinforming the family with regard to their deportation and criticised the authorities for holding the four children of the family in different accommodation. The parents resisted the attempt to deport them as they feared if they were sent back to Norway they would then be deported to Afghanistan.
For its part, the Department of Public Safety said the newspaper’s criticism was totally unfounded, adding that the article was one-sided and failed to include the full facts.
“All procedures in relation to this matter were carried out in accordance with the law,” said a spokesman for the authority. “The family was kept informed about their situation at all times, including the consequences if they failed to cooperate, in other words about the ensuing detention and temporary necessity for them to be split up.”
The spokesman continued to say that it was the family’s failure to cooperate which led to the father being held in prison, with the mother and fourth-month-old baby detained at the airport.
The Zug authorities denied the other three children had been split up and held in different accommodation; they were all housed at the same place. Had they been held with relatives, as the parents wanted, there was the possibility of some of them absconding. Furthermore, with the two older children able to speak German, there was no problem with regard to communication. The Zug authorities denied, contrary to what the newspaper claimed, that the children had been prevented from contacting their parents by telephone.
The Alternative Green Party has subsequently tabled a question to the cantonal government about this matter.