Swiss government clamps down on asylum seekers

Apartheid-style new asylum rules in some Swiss towns will bar refugees from specified public places. 

In different towns these include swimming pools, playing fields, libraries and even a church.

Asylum seekers are to be housed in special centres. Roman Staub, mayor of Menzingen, said refugees should be kept away from schools where they might “meet our schoolchildren—young girls or boys”.

Around 48,000 people are trying to seek asylum in Switzerland.

The Swiss Refugee Council described the rules as “intolerable and inhuman”. 

Its statement said, “We are talking about children, women, men who fled from war and persecution”.