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Swiss House backs tougher asylum measures

National Council calls for tougher asylum measures
National Council calls for tougher asylum measures Keystone-SDA

The Swiss House of Representatives has voted in favour of tighter measures on asylum including the deportation of dual nationals.

On Thursday, the House adopted a motion tabled by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party parliamentary group calling on the government to reject, within the Joint Committee on the Free Movement of Persons, any proposed change to European Union rules regarding compensation for unemployed cross-border workers. A further motion seeks to instruct the federal government to revoke the citizenship of dual nationals and deport them if they have been convicted of the most serious crimes.

+ Asylum: major obstacles to family reunification in Switzerland

Furthermore, the government is to change its practice regarding the handling of asylum applications from Afghan women, so that they are no longer automatically eligible for asylum but only for provisional admission status. Furthermore, the majority in the House called for legislative amendments to introduce targeted sanctions against uncooperative countries of origin.

The federal government had previously rejected all nine motions debated in the House. Next, the Senate must rule on the motions that were considered in the lower house during an extraordinary session on “the EU and asylum”.

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