Lessons from Chiasso: Why the Swiss-German Border Remains Vulnerable

Swiss Justice Minister Beat Jans recently escorted his German counterpart, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, to the southern border in Chiasso. The location was deliberate: inside the local railway station, a binational police and customs center has been running for twenty-three years. The objective of the visit was to demonstrate a working countermeasure against art thieves, human smugglers, and organized syndicates who routinely treat national borders as convenient shields against law enforcement.

Switzerland already maintains a basic liaison office with Germany in Basel, but the Federal Council is aiming for a much deeper arrangement. In Chiasso, Swiss federal officers, cantonal police, and border guards operate under the exact same roof as Italian police, Carabinieri, and the Guardia di Finanza. According to center director Andrea Wehrmüller, direct proximity enables continuous, round-the-clock information exchange between federal, cantonal, and Italian authorities. Rather than high-profile operations, the bulk of their daily work revolves around migration, widespread property offenses, and serious organized crime.

Impressed by the setup, Dobrindt acknowledged the structural dilemma, noting that “criminality knows no borders” and actively uses international boundaries to secure an advantage over security forces—an advantage authorities must remove. Jans emphasized that the Federal Council is committed to expanding cooperation along the Swiss-German border to enhance overall security.

However, exporting the Ticino model to the north will not happen quickly. Dobrindt pointed out that any future joint center must first be cleared with the neighboring federal states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. While Swiss authorities appear ready to act, the wheels of German federal bureaucracy guarantee that establishing a shared police hub will take considerable time.

Written by Thomas Nussbaumer thomas.nussbaumer@alpineweekly.com