Swiss vote for deportation of foreigners who commit serious crimes

Significant victory for the nationalist party that pushed the proposal against the will of the government

Swiss voters today approved a plan for automatic deportation of foreigners who commit serious crimes or benefit fraud, in what was a significant victory for the nationalist party that pushed the proposal against the will of the government.

Some 52.9% of voters backed the proposal from the nationalist Swiss People's party (SVP). It was opposed by 47.1% of voters. A government-backed counterproposal failed – it would have required a case-by-case review by a judge before an individual was deported.

"I'm totally for it," said Emma Link, 86, after voting in Geneva. She blamed foreigners for what she said was rising crime, adding that she had recently been robbed on her way home from a nearby shop.

The SVP plan drew fire before today's referendum from legal experts who said it could breach offenders' human rights. Marcelo Kohen, a professor of international law at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, said people who had lived all their life in Switzerland, married Swiss citizens and had children but never obtained Swiss passports, would be unusually hard hit by expulsion.

Under Switzerland's political system, any group wanting to change the law can collect 100,000 signatures to force a referendum. Last year the country drew international condemnation after voters defied a government recommendation by approving a law to ban the construction of minarets.

The government will now have to draft a law requiring automatic expulsion of foreigners found guilty of crimes such as murder, rape, drug dealing or benefit fraud. Kohen predicted such a law would be challenged before the European court of human rights.

Likewise, the European Union – with which Switzerland has signed a bilateral treaty guaranteeing freedom of movement – would probably object to its citizens being automatically deported without the chance of judicial review, he said.

During the run-up to the vote, anti-racism groups bemoaned that the SVP's posters showed white sheep kicking black sheep off a Swiss flag, saying it played on stereotypical images of foreigners as criminals.

Virginie Studemann voted against the plan. "I think it's sad for our country," she said outside a polling station in the center of Geneva. "It's part of a concerted attack against foreigners."

Voters also rejected a proposal to revise the country's tax system today. The Swiss news agency SDA reported that 58% of voters opposed the plan, while 42% backed a proposal by the Social Democrat party to introduce a minimum tax in all Switzerland's 26 cantons, or states.

The Polling group gfs.bern saidearlier this month that initial enthusiasm for the plan evaporated after heavy campaigning by business groups, who warned it could harm the Swiss economy. Several prominent billionaires also spoke out against the proposal and threatened to move abroad if it were accepted.

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk