Nation votes on expulsion of foreign criminals

Switzerland began voting in a referendum on Sunday on whether foreign criminals should be automatically deported even for minor offenses, after a far-right push to tighten the rules.

Polling comes at a time when many European countries are hardening their attitudes to migrants after more than a million arrived on the continent last year.

More than half of Swiss voters backed strengthening rules to automatically expel foreign nationals convicted of violent or sexual crimes in a referendum on the same topic six years ago.