The forcible deportation of persons with a legally binding deportation decision and the associated disclosure of medical data has been a topic for the Central Ethics Committee (CEC) of the SAMS for years. The desire of the authorities to carry out deportation efficiently must not undermine the medical-ethical obligations of physicians, especially with regard to professional secrecy.
Due to the legal changes that came into force in May 2022, the responsibility for the decision on fitness for transport now lies explicitly and exclusively with the physician commissioned by the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) and not with the attending (prison) physician. Only medical data that is really necessary for the execution of the expulsion may be transmitted, not to the authorities, but from doctor to doctor.
New Medical Report Form
A working group with doctors and representatives of the authorities has developed a new form for the transmission of health data relevant to assessing transportability. It will be available to doctors treating people affected by a repatriation order (e.g. those detained pending deportation). It will enable doctors to respond to requests from the authorities to transmit the relevant health data.
The new form is beeing used for people whos deportation falls into the jurisdiction of the cantons of Solothurn, Thurgau or Vaud since October 2023. These cantons had made themselves available to test the new form in a pilotphase. The nationwide introduction of the form is planed for 1 January 2026 and will then replace the previous version everywhere.
At the moment the new form is available in german and french only:
Medical secrecy preservation
Medical secrecy should be respected when these health data are transmitted. Ideally, consent to data disclosure is available from the person to be deported. If it is refused, it is strongly recommended to the attending doctor to obtain a release from medical secrecy by the superior authority, despite the new provision of the law and ordinance. A list of the competent cantonal authorities and the corresponding forms can be downloaded here. A list of the competent cantonal authorities and the corresponding forms can be downloaded here.
An article published jointly by the SAMS, the FMH and the Conference of Swiss Prison Doctors in the Schweizerische Ärztezeitung (SÄZ) provides an overview of these changes and the concrete procedure.
Read the article in German or in French (22.06.2022, link temporarily inactive).
Two different roles for physicians
Physicians accompanying forced returns and assessing returnees’ fitness for transport assume an expert function. They have a different role when providing medical care for patients in pre-deportation detention: they transmit health data that may prevent a forced return, but are not responsible for assessing fitness for transport.
In 2013, the Central Ethics Committee (CEC) of the SAMS published an opinion on the medical aspects of forced returns, calling for a change to the existing «fit-to-fly» system. The demands and concerns formulated in this statement essentially remain valid despite the changes in the legal situation in 2022.
Medical aspects of forcible deportations (in German)