(Reuters) Switzerland will not accept large groups of refugees arriving directly from Afghanistan, the government said on Wednesday, as a Swiss army unit arrived in Kabul to assess the situation.
The neutral Alpine country has promised to evacuate local workers for a Swiss development office and their families, 230 people whom the Taliban insurgents could see as “western collaborators,” it said.
But other applications for asylum will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, with humanitarian visas considered only for people facing an “immediate, concrete, serious and directly life-threatening threat,” the government said.
Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said she understood calls to take in more Afghans, but this was not possible now.
