Swiss reject proposal to deport foreign law-breakers

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss voters rejected a right-wing proposal to deport foreign law-breakers in a referendum on Sunday, handing a defeat to the country's dominant anti-immigration Swiss People's Party (SVP).


The plan to expel foreign residents guilty of anything from murder to speeding was proposed by the SVP, the country's largest political movement with around a third of the seats in Switzerland's lower house of parliament.

But it faced opposition from activists and business leaders who said it would violate human rights and complicate relations with Switzerland's main trade partner, the European Union, already angered by a 2014 vote that backed quotas on EU workers.

The final tally showed 58.9 percent of voters opposed the automatic deportations. Turnout was more than 62 percent, the highest for a referendum in Switzerland since 1992, said Claude Longchamp of the gfs.bern research and polling institute.

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