Foreigners Make Up 80 Percent of Swiss Prison Inmates

The number of prisoners in Switzerland has soared in the last 30 years with foreigners now accounting for 80 per cent of the prison population, according to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office.

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In the first decade from 1988 to 1998, Swiss citizens made up around 31 per cent of the prisoners compared to 28 per cent who were foreigners living in Switzerland and 41 per cent who were foreigners residing overseas. In 1989, Swiss citizens made up as much as 44 per cent of prisoners.

During the next two decades, the number of Swiss citizen prisoners fell to only 20 per cent, with foreigners residing in Switzerland going up to 37 per cent in the second decade and back down to 28 per cent in the third.

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The trend also mirrors other European countries which have seen high rates of crime in which foreign nationals are often suspects.

In Germany, certain cities such as Berlin have released statistics showing that up to half of the crimes committed in the city involve foreign suspects. In some specific crimes, foreigners were shown to be vastly overrepresented including heroin trafficking where migrants made up 85 per cent of suspects in 2016 in the German capital.

In the Austrian capital of Vienna, the disparity between the crime rate of natives and migrants is even starker with foreigners making up more than half of all the suspects in crimes, according to a report released last August.