May 13, 2026 | Switzerland Report (Draft)

Liminality Research Consortium

Executive summary

This report examines the experiences, survival strategies, and health repercussions faced by forcibly displaced persons (FDPs) in Switzerland, with a particular focus on transactional sex (TS), psychosocial health, healthcare access, and societal isolation. Based on qualitative data collected through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews with refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, and service providers in Geneva, Zurich, and St. Gallen, the findings show that many FDPs continue to experience financial and livelihood insecurity, uncertain legal status, barriers to formal employment, social isolation, and difficulties accessing appropriate healthcare and mental health services despite the support structures available in Switzerland. These structural vulnerabilities, combined with trauma experienced in countries of origin and along migration journeys, contribute to adverse mental health outcomes and, in some cases, facilitate engagement in TS as a survival strategy. The report highlights the heightened vulnerabilities faced by forcibly displaced persons of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC), including discrimination in asylum centers and healthcare settings, and underscores the need for more gender-responsive, trauma-informed, and accessible support systems, including improved access to sexual and reproductive health and mental healthcare, appropriate translation services, safer accommodation conditions, and greater opportunities for social and economic integration.

Download the report