Swiss Vote on Tougher Refugee Rules

[klah]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=1795515

The people of Switzerland are voting on Sunday on a proposal to tighten rules for refugees seeking asylum in the neutral country which, if accepted, could isolate it even further from the European Union surrounding it.

The referendum was called by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), which wants to cut down on the one billion Swiss francs ($680 million) the country spends yearly on the upkeep of refugees and tries to stop a wave of economic immigrants.

Critics fear the rules will make Switzerland a political shelter exclusively for the wealthy.

Foreigners already account for some 20 percent of the Swiss population and the debate has been fueled by the arrival of more black Africans in German-speaking areas who have been cast by some Swiss media as a drug-dealing scourge.

 

[Zebo]

My uncle has lived in switzerland fo 33 years and works as an engineer for a top medical devices company. If he and his kids who were born there can't get citizenship.....This is nothing new klah.

 

[ndee]

that proposal will never ever be accepted, believe me And in my opinion, they have to do SOMETHING against those refugees, invading Switzerland, really, but that proposal isn't the right way.

 

[Tominator]

They are Racist and Homophobic!:|

 

[klah]

Swiss Barely Reject Severe Curbs on Asylum

Of more than 2.2 million votes cast in the closest initiative result since 1891, only 2,734 more people voted against the referendum proposed by the Swiss People's Party, which would have denied asylum to anyone who arrived overland via a country Switzerland considered a potential safe haven. That would have applied to all bordering countries. A vast majority of asylum-seekers arrive by land.