GENEVA
Rights groups have urged Switzerland to take in 100,000 refugees that are fleeing from nearly four years of conflict in their homeland, Syria.
Solidarite sans frontieres - a migration policy organization based in the Swiss capital Bern - along with 26 non-governmental organizations, has called Swiss authorities to do more for the Syrian refugees in an open letter that appeared at SSF's website .
The letter said that there have never been so many people fleeing their homes since the Second World War and it was difficult to understand that the EU and Switzerland was adopting a "policy of isolation".
It also said that Switzerland, as one of the richest countries, should be doing much more than it is doing now for the Syrian refugees.
Switzerland is resettling 500 Syrian refugees over three years under a pilot project that started in 2013, which was strongly criticized by the non-governmental organizations as "hypocrisy".
Meanwhile, "Switzerland has initiated a temporary extended family reunification programme from September to November 2013," the Swiss foreign ministry told the Anadolu Agency.
"Under this programme 4,600 visas have been issued to date and 4,200 Syrian have arrived in the country," it added.
The ministry said that there were nearly 10'000 Syrian civilians living in Switzerland, 168 of whom were resettled, 1,460 were granted refugee status and 3,500 had provisional admissions.
The UN refugee agency had called for 130,000 resettlement spots for the most vulnerable Syrian refugees in December, 2014 and around 36 countries pledged to shelter 100,000 Syrian refugees.
