Rising crime has pushed Zurich’s cantonal government to ask the federal government to sign more immigration deals with other countries, especially those in Africa.

Specifically Zurich wants more deals like those with Tunisia or Nigeria, regulating deportations. 

Zurich security director Hans Fehr said refugees from Algeria or Morocco know their countries are not moving on such deals, so signing agreements would have a positive effect on crime levels.

“Four years ago 2.8 percent of our total crime was committed by asylum seekers. Now it is over 10 percent. And North Africans make up a large part of that,” Franz Bättig with Zurich cantonal police told public television.

Bättig claimed the so-called Arab Spring, and various prison breaks therein, sent more criminals north to Europe.