Swiss voters have accepted a referendum proposal for the
automatic expulsion of non-Swiss citizens for certain crimes, an exit poll
suggests.
Some 53% agreed that those convicted of crimes ranging
from murder to benefit fraud should be deported, the poll for state broadcaster
SF1 said.
The Swiss People’s Party, which drew up the measure, said
immigrants “should respect the rules of this country”.
But opponents said it was another example of increasing
xenophobia.
The right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), was behind
last year’s referendum that imposed a ban on the building of Islamic minarets.
That decision was condemned by human rights groups and foreign governments.
The SVP says immigrants to Switzerland are
disproportionately responsible for crime. It points to the fact that more than
60% of prison inmates do not have Swiss nationality.
But opponents say the measures go too far. The children
of immigrants do not automatically get Swiss citizenship, so the rule would
mean sending some people who were born and brought up in Switzerland to
countries they know nothing of.
Convicts would serve their sentence in Switzerland first
and then be deported without appeal.
The Swiss government believes mandatory deportation could
violate Switzerland’s obligations under international law not to send people to
countries that practise torture or execution.
It advised voters to reject the proposal, and it put
forward an alternative system which would allow deportation for certain crimes,
but which would assess cases individually. The exit poll suggested that had
been defeated.
The SVP has been accused of using racist posters that
depict certain ethnic groups as criminal.
The Swiss political analyst Georg Lutz says the SVP’s
wider strategy is to capitalise on Swiss worries that the foreign population is
too big.
“This vote is not about some complex legal issues
about how to deal with certain types of criminal foreigners,” he says.
“What most people will want to do in this vote is
make a statement against foreigners, and that is the central motivation.”
A second referendum, which asked the Swiss to approve a
minimum tax rate of 22% for people earning more than 250,000 francs (£160,000;
190,000 euros), was rejected, the exit poll suggested.
The Socialist Party said it would be more just, but the
government and centre-right parties said it would harm the economy by making
the country less appealing to foreign businessmen.
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