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CRIME

Report: Switzerland is world’s safest country

Provided you're not mountain climbing, skiing off-piste or base jumping, Switzerland is the safest country in the world, according to a new study.

Published: 14 August 2015 10:00 CEST
Report: Switzerland is world’s safest country
Photo: Russ Bowling

The report, carried out by New York-based research and analysis website ValuePenguin, puts Switzerland at the top of a list ranking the safety of 107 countries with accessible data.

The study is based on data gathered in seven topic areas “chosen because of their connectedness to the idea of ‘everyday safety’, but also because they were the most available for as many countries as we could fairly include in the study,” said the report.

Those seven areas comprise population figures, the number of thefts, assaults and traffic deaths, CO2 emission levels, police officers per head of population and life expectancy.

The study used the most recent figures available from sources including the World Bank, the United Nations and the World Health Organization.

The metrics were weighted, with population and CO2 emissions given the least value and assaults and life expectancy the most weighting.

“We decided on the order of weighting using our belief that violent crimes are more worrisome to the average citizen than non-violent crimes, for example,” Andrew Pentis of ValuePenguin told The Local.

“Life expectancy was weighted the most because we believe that metric is perhaps the most well-rounded metric of the bunch.”

According to ValuePenguin’s methodology, Switzerland came out on top, followed by Singapore, Spain, Japan and Cyprus.

In publishing its report, ValuePenguin drew attention to Switzerland’s low reported violent crime rate – seven per 100,000 people – and its compulsory health insurance system.

Being based on “everyday safety”, the methodology did not account for the Swiss propensity for high-risk sports, such as base-jumping, off-piste skiing and mountaineering, which claim lives every year.

“Switzerland earned high marks in the categories we analyzed, which include data on crime, police, air quality and life expectancy,” said Pentis.

“We did not account for dangerous/extreme sports in our study, but we did include life expectancy, which captures some of the risk there.”

Neither did the survey factor in current political situations or conflict, throwing up some surprising results.

Syria, for example, placed at number 55, making it safer than countries including Latvia (66), Lithuania (71) and Andorra (98).

Pentis told The Local: “Cyprus made it all the way to number five despite being a country which has literally been divided into two for decades. Cyprus' talks of reunification had zero bearing on its ranking. We only focused on the safety within the countries themselves.”

“I can understand that some readers may be surprised to see one country, perhaps their own, ranked higher or lower than maybe they expected,” he added.

“This is a natural outcome of an overview study like this one.”

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CRIME

‘Your permit is invalid’: Foreigners in Switzerland warned to avoid new scam

Scores of foreign residents have received an email recently telling them their residency rights in Switzerland have been revoked.

Published: 26 April 2024 11:17 CEST
Updated: 2 May 2024 15:04 CEST
'Your permit is invalid': Foreigners in Switzerland warned to avoid new scam

A number of foreign nationals, especially in the German-speaking part of the country, have received an official-looking letter, purportedly from the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) informing them that the Free Movement of People agreement between Switzerland and the EU has been nullified, and therefore “your residence permit is no longer valid.”

Faced with enquiries from concerned recipients, SEM responded that the letter is fake, advising recipients to ignore it and, above all, not to click on the QR code on the top.

“Fake letters from the SEM have been circulating since the beginning of this week,” the immigration authority said on its website as well as on X (formerly Twitter).  

“The letter has no impact on the recipient’s  residence status,” SEM added.

Fake jobs, real threats

However, this is only the latest scam perpetrated in the name of SEM.

There have been others in the past.

For instance, many foreigners have also received emails from addresses swissimmigration@consultant or eu_immigration@consultant, that pretend to be the Swiss immigration authority.

“In most cases, a fictitious job in the hotel industry is offered, with the senders demanding payment of 300 to 1,000 euros for a permit in Switzerland and for health and accident insurance,” SEM reported.

The first clue that this email doesn’t come from  SEM, which is part of Switzerland’s government, is that it is asking for payment in euros. If the scammers were smarter, they’d demand Swiss francs.

“These e-mails do not come from the SEM and should be considered as an attempt at fraud,” the agency said. 

Extortion attempt

And a few years ago, a number of foreigners received emails coming allegedly from SEM, Swiss border control authorities, or even the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol).

They threatened to revoke the victim’s residence permit or even expel them from the country altogether if they didn’t pay a certain sum of money into an anonymous account.

Needless to say, no government authority would ever resort to blackmail or demand payment for such ‘services’.

So a good rule to remember (for foreigners and Swiss alike) is that if threats and pressure are involved, letters / emails / phone calls ( WhatsUp messages are more than likely scams.
 
READ ALSO: The common scams foreigners in Switzerland need to be aware of 

Don’t respond

SEM as well as police urge everyone contacted by scammers, by whatever means to:

  • Ignore these messages by hanging up the phone and / or deleting emails, moving them to the Spam folder
  • Never give out your credit card number or bank account information to people you don’t know
  • If you did give your card number, contact your credit card company immediately to have the card blocked. Likewise, if you gave out your banking details, get in touch with your bank.
  • In the event of threats of extortion attempts, consider filing a criminal complaint. You can search for police stations in your area on the Police website. 
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