BERN - Switzerland received 9,734 asylum applications in the first half of 2026, the State Secretariat for Migration said on Thursday. That is 16 percent fewer than in the same months of 2025. June alone brought 1,777 applications: 20 percent below June last year, and 9 percent above May.
The secretariat tied the year-on-year drop to lower arrival numbers in southern Italy and to fewer applications from Turkish nationals. The June list was still led by Afghanistan, with 456 applications, then Eritrea with 222, Algeria with 175, Turkey with 140 and Somalia with 139.
Decisions and departures in June
Officials decided 2,235 asylum applications in June and granted asylum in just under a third of them. Another 872 people left the country that month. Of those, 527 left on their own and 345 were returned to a home country or a third country. The figures describe a system that is still working through cases, not a border that has gone quiet.
A vote that did not set this number
Voters rejected a population cap in June. These statistics are not that debate, but they are the file politicians will quote when the next immigration argument starts. The ballot result is in our 14 June report. Thursday's release is narrower: fewer claims than last year, a June rebound from May, and Afghanistan still the largest single nationality in the monthly count.