Neutral Switzerland, home to humanitarian agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross, on Sunday voted heavily in favour of making it harder for asylum-seekers to gain entry to the rich Alpine state, Reuters reported. Despite warnings of damage to Switzerland's humanitarian reputation, some 70 percent of voters said 'yes' in referendums on laws limiting access for non-European job-seekers and changes to the country's asylum rules to make them amongst the West's toughest, according to projections. "Obviously we are disappointed, but we knew it would be difficult," said Thomas Christen, secretary-general of the Swiss Socialist Party, one of the few parties to oppose the changes. "Switzerland has one of the hardest asylum laws in Europe and that does not help our reputation," he told Reuters. But voters accepted the arguments of right-wing Justice Minister Christoph Blocher that the new regulations, featuring a requirement that all asylum-seekers have a passport, were necessary to fight alleged abuse. The measures have already been passed by both parliament and the government, but opponents raised enough signatures to force a national vote.
