A Swiss court has upheld a woman’s appeal against a naturalisation refusal which saw her bid to become Swiss turned down because of a door-ringing and egg-throwing incident in her youth.
The Aargau Administrative Court has overturned a refusal of the cantonal Naturalisation Commission, which ruled that the Eritrean woman did not deserve a Swiss passport because when she was 15, she was caught, along with other teenagers, throwing eggs at a house and ringing doorbells before running away.
At the time, the juvenile prosecutor’s office issued her a reprimand for property damage and disorderly conduct, letting her off with a warning. But the commission took the prank as a sign of lack of integration.
This case, however, came back to haunt her years later, when she applied for Swiss citizenship and the commission used the incident as grounds to deny her request.
‘One-off’
The woman appealed this refusal to the Administrative Court, which ruled in her favour on February 9th, arguing that the incident was a “one-off” and occurred “within the context of group dynamics typical of youthful pranks.”
Further, the judges stated that the naturalisation commission must consider “the specific act, the circumstances of the act, and the degree of culpability.”
It must then examine whether it can be reasonably expected that the applicant, now 23, “will continue to disregard the law in the future.”
Therefore, denying this person naturalisation solely on the basis of this prank is “arbitrary and disproportionate,” the court said.
It overturned the commission’s decision and granted the woman the cantonal and municipal citizenship, subject to her federal naturalisation.
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Cow bells and grass cutting
This is the latest example in a long line of arbitrary naturalisation refusals in recent years.
Also in Aargau, a Dutch woman saw her citizenship attempt initially denied because she complained about the noise of cow bells in her village (she too appealed the decision and was eventually granted citizenship).
Other instances include a Frenchman in canton Jura, whose application was turned down because he was cutting his grass on public holidays, as well as a British citizen in Schwyz, who was denied a Swiss passport because he didn’t know the origins of Swiss cheese dish raclette — a definite faux-pas in Switzerland.
READ MORE: The bizarre reasons applicants have been denied Swiss citizenship