BERNE, Sept 24: Neutral Switzerland, home to humanitarian agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross, voted by a big majority on Sunday to make it harder for asylum-seekers to gain entry to the rich Alpine state.
Despite warnings of damage to the country’s humanitarian reputation, 68 per cent of voters said ‘yes’ in referendums on changes to Swiss asylum rules making them among the West’s toughest and on limiting access for non-European job-seekers.
Voters accepted the arguments of right-wing Justice Minister Christoph Blocher that the new regulations, featuring a requirement that all asylum-seekers have a passport, were necessary to fight alleged abuse.
“The people have said they do not want abuse (of the system) but they want to maintain the humanitarian traditions of Switzerland,” Blocher told TSR television. The minister says less than half of asylum requests turn out to be valid.
According to his ministry, the two law changes won 68 per cent backing. Both measures have already been passed by parliament and the government, but opponents raised enough signatures to force a national vote.
It is the latest move by an industrial power— Britain is among others— to raise barriers against asylum as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration.
“Obviously, we are disappointed, but we knew it would be difficult,” said Thomas Christen, secretary-general of the Swiss Socialist Party, one of the few parties to oppose the changes.
“Switzerland has one of the hardest asylum laws in Europe and that does not help our reputation,” he told Reuters.
Swiss religious associations— Protestant, Catholic and Jewish— issued a joint statement criticising the result, saying it did not “provide the appropriate solutions for the existing problems”.
The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, which had expressed concern about toughening the asylum code, said in a statement that it regretted Switzerland had backed ‘restrictive’ new laws.
Spokesman William Spindler said the agency, which says the passport requirement may bar genuine refugees, would be watching to ensure that treatment of asylum-seekers was in line with international rules.
The new law will also deny financial assistance to unsuccessful asylum-seekers and threatens them with longer periods of detention if they refuse to leave.
Voters were also being asked to approve a clearer division between job seekers from the European Union, and non-EU Switzerland’s allies within the European Free Trade Association, and those from outside the two blocs. The latter will be accepted only if they have special skills.
The new measures were proposed despite figures showing that asylum applications in the country of 7.5 million people had been falling sharply in line with a worldwide trend.
Just over 10,000 people sought asylum in Switzerland in 2005, down 29 per cent from the previous year and less than half the 21,037 who applied in 2003, according to official figures.
“During World War Two, Switzerland turned away Jews, calling them ‘false refugees’— and that is a slogan which marked this campaign,” said former Swiss President and Socialist minister Ruth Dreifuss, who is herself Jewish.—Reuters
