Last Updated on April 26, 2024 by pg@petergamma.org
The Life of the Tibetan Buddhist mediation teacher Loten Dahortsang is shown here on the Swiss health television YouTube channel:
Successful integration of Tibetans in Switzerland
Today, over 7,500 Tibetans live in Switzerland after the Federal Council approved the admission of 1,000 Tibetan refugees in the early 1960s.
Although the Swiss government officially recognized China in 1949, the Tibetans who fled the communist occupiers of their homeland Tibet were warmly welcomed by the population. From today’s perspective, the integration of the first refugees from Asia can be viewed as successful.
Nationality “Tibet” is replaced by “China”
Due to the increasing rapprochement between official Switzerland and China and the economic integration of both countries, especially after the conclusion of the Switzerland-China free trade agreement in 2014, the Swiss authorities increasingly changed their benevolent policy towards the Tibetan community: their nationality was “Tibetan” in official papers. replaced by “Chinese”, their home country “Tibet” by “China”.
“When Chinese government members come to visit Switzerland, thoroughfares are “cleaned” of Tibetan flags and rallies by Tibetan organizations are prevented or at least banished to the sidelines somewhere,” explains Thomas Büchli, President of the Swiss-Tibetan Friendship GSTF.“
Swiss Intelligence service confirms: China is monitoring Tibetans in Switzerland
In its 2016 and 2020 annual reports, the Swiss federal intelligence service reported increasing surveillance activities against the Tibetan community by Chinese actors.
Tibetans here have to fear that their legitimate political activities in Switzerland will endanger their relatives back home in Tibet.
Angela Mattli, campaign manager for the Society for Threatened Peoples, demands:
“The Swiss Federal Council’s new China strategy must use its instruments to prevent China’s increasing influence on Swiss domestic politics in order to guarantee our values, such as freedom of expression and the protection of privacy .»
https://www.gfbv.ch/de/medien/medienmitteilungen/situation-der-tibetischen-gemeinschaft