Swiss reimpose immigrant quotas

The Swiss government has decided to reimpose quotas on immigrants from Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and five other Central and Eastern European nations.

The Swiss Cabinet said today that residents from these countries – which also include Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia – will be subject to quotas starting in May when they apply for residency permits needed to work more than a year in Switzerland.

The government said the quotas fall under a “safeguard clause” of an agreement with the European Union.

The Swiss let the quotas on the eight nations lapse in May last year.

Since then, Swiss officials say they have granted about 6,000 residency permits to those nations’ workers – almost triple the average 2,075 permits a year granted before then.