The Swiss State Secretariat for Migration is spending almost half a million dollars on the filming of a television series with actors from Africa that will show the problems of illegal life in Europe.
The series will air on Nigerian television.
"We have seen that the lack of information or false information is one of the main problems that leads to illegal immigration," said the spokesman of the Secretariat, Lukas Reeder.
He explains that people who smuggle migrants tell them that Switzerland is paradise, a real El Dorado.
"But that's not true. We want to give the facts about the dangers of the road, and the dangers of living in Switzerland without a permit," says Reeder.
The series is called "Missing Steps", and the project is led by the famous Nigerian actor and director Charles Okafor. The series follows the journey of a XNUMX-year-old who graduated from university, falls into debt and tries to solve his problems in Europe.
But Switzerland rejects his request for asylum and he is deported completely hunted, poor and unhappy.
"He paid a high price," Okafor sums up the series in an interview with Swissinfo.
However, experts questioned the purpose of this serial drama.
On the one hand, asylum is quite difficult to obtain in Switzerland, so last year 1.300 out of 27 requests were approved. Four percent of the requests were submitted by Nigerians, and only three received asylum, and six received a temporary permit.
Deportation is less simple, so two thirds of the prison population are foreigners, without or with papers. It is estimated that the role of the series is to discourage asylum seekers from coming to Europe. Germany, Italy and Australia have already done this with some video messages.
Bonus video:
