Switzerland's largest party, the populist right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), said Friday it wanted a referendum on the country's new asylum law, describing it as too lax and "dangerous".
The party said it planned to launch a referendum against revisions to the country's asylum law recently approved by both houses of parliament, warning the changes would turn Switzerland into "a powerful magnet for illegal immigrants, economic migrants and other profiteers of the social system".
Parliamentarian Adrian Amstutz, who announced the party's plans to launch a referendum, received little support from other parties, who accused the party of pandering to voters ahead of federal elections to be held on October 18.
The anti-immigration party has long been adamantly opposed to the asylum policies of Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga, a member of the Socialist Party who also currently holds Switzerland's rotating presidency.
SVP was particularly critical of the new requirement for all asylum seekers to be granted free access to a lawyer, insisting this would be unfair to Swiss citizens who are not automatically and unconditionally granted free legal support.
It also decried the decision to transfer more of the decision-making on asylum from the regional to the federal level, and that Bern can now decide to expropriate Swiss property owners to create reception centres.
The revisions also call for a dramatic increase in the country's capacity to receive and host asylum seekers.
And they aim to speed up the asylum application process by requiring that at least 60 percent of applications are decided within 140 days, compared to the current average of around 700 days today.
Referenda on a wide range of issues are held every few months in Switzerland, making up the backbone of the wealthy Alpine nation's direct democratic system.
If opponents of a law managed to gather 50,000 signatures, they can demand a popular vote giving the Swiss people the final word.
Switzerland, like other European countries, have recently seen a sharp increase in asylum requests.
Nearly 12,000 people, around a third of them from Eritrea, sought asylum in the wealthy Alpine nation during the first half of the year, marking a 16-percent hike from the same period last year.
For all of 2015, Switzerland, a country of around eight million people, expects to receive some 29,000 asylum requests.
Switzerland’s largest party, the populist right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), said Friday it wanted a referendum on the country’s new asylum law, describing it as too lax and “dangerous”.
The party said it planned to launch a referendum against revisions to the country’s asylum law recently approved by both houses of parliament, warning the changes would turn Switzerland into “a powerful magnet for illegal immigrants, economic migrants and other profiteers of the social system”.
Parliamentarian Adrian Amstutz, who announced the party’s plans to launch a referendum, received little support from other parties, who accused the party of pandering to voters ahead of federal elections to be held on October 18.
The anti-immigration party has long been adamantly opposed to the asylum policies of Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga, a member of the Socialist Party who also currently holds Switzerland’s rotating presidency.
SVP was particularly critical of the new requirement for all asylum seekers to be granted free access to a lawyer, insisting this would be unfair to Swiss citizens who are not automatically and unconditionally granted free legal support.
It also decried the decision to transfer more of the decision-making on asylum from the regional to the federal level, and that Bern can now decide to expropriate Swiss property owners to create reception centres.
The revisions also call for a dramatic increase in the country’s capacity to receive and host asylum seekers.
And they aim to speed up the asylum application process by requiring that at least 60 percent of applications are decided within 140 days, compared to the current average of around 700 days today.
Referenda on a wide range of issues are held every few months in Switzerland, making up the backbone of the wealthy Alpine nation’s direct democratic system.
If opponents of a law managed to gather 50,000 signatures, they can demand a popular vote giving the Swiss people the final word.
Switzerland, like other European countries, have recently seen a sharp increase in asylum requests.
Nearly 12,000 people, around a third of them from Eritrea, sought asylum in the wealthy Alpine nation during the first half of the year, marking a 16-percent hike from the same period last year.
For all of 2015, Switzerland, a country of around eight million people, expects to receive some 29,000 asylum requests.
