Spain joins the rush to halt illegal immigrants

The Times of London ^ | June 06, 2002 | Stephen Burgen

[Map Kernow]

SPAIN is to follow Italy’s lead with new curbs on immigration that are expected to include measures for the fast-track expulsion of illegal immigrants and longer jail sentences for people-traffickers.

After the announcement of tough new Italian legislation, which includes fingerprinting non-European Union immigrants, Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish Interior Minister, said in Barcelona that the Government would make a “serious study” of how the present law, which has been in force for only 18 months, could be reformed and brought into line with European norms.

Although he did not go into specifics, he cited the case of Germany, which restricts the right of relatives’ entry to parents and to children under 16. Spanish law extends the right to “the first blood line”, which includes grandparents and the parents’ own siblings.

Señor Rajoy said that immigration was “the most important issue on the table for European governments”.

Speaking from The Hague, José María Aznar, the Spanish Prime Minister, said: “It’s time to drop the mask of hypocrisy that is hindering the adoption of measures needed to regulate the flow of immigrants.”

Josep Piqué, the Foreign Minister, said that there would be a “serious, rigorous and wide-ranging” debate on the issue at the European Union summit in Seville later this month.

The biggest single group of immigrants to Spain comes from Morocco and the issue of illegal immigration continues to sour relations between Madrid and Rabat. The Spanish authorities claim that Rabat turns a blind eye and that illegal immigration is organised by Moroccan gangs. Morocco retorts that it is organised in Spain by Moroccans with Spanish passports.

One of Señor Rajoy’s proposals is to raise from five to eight years the maximum sentence for people-trafficking.

If the law is reformed, it will be the third change in as many years. Existing legislation has been much criticised for failing to recognise the reality of the marketplace in a country with a big demand for seasonal, casual labour, especially in agriculture and construction.

Many Moroccans have come to depend on the income from Spain’s fruit and wine harvest. Under the present law, they cannot enter Spain without proof of employment, but farmers and building contractors are not given to handing out contracts to their casual workers. A recent survey found that only 17 per cent of immigrants had work permits.

The result has been a huge upsurge in illegal immigration with thousands of pateras — so-called after their tiny boats — risking their lives to cross the Strait of Gibraltar. Last year at least 1,000 drowned in the attempt. Most are caught and deported. Police deported 13,000 illegal immigrants in 2001. This year, however, those who do make it have been finding jobs taken by Poles, Romanians and Ukrainians, who are brought over legally by agencies.

Latin Americans form the other main group of immigrants and most arrive by aircraft on tourist visas and disappear into their respective communities. The most numerous are Ecuadoreans. There are nearly 100,000 in Spain, from a country with a population of ten million.

Immigration is a new issue in a country where even five years ago an Asian or an African was a rarity and politicians of every stripe can see that it plays well at the polls. Unemployment is rising, but even so Spaniards do not want to do the poorly paid jobs that are open to immigrants, legal or not.

[Map Kernow]

Spain, too, hunh? And I've read that Mexico (that's right: Mexico) is very tough on illegal immigrants from the rest of Latin America.

Looks like we'll soon be the only country on earth without a rational immigration policy---"American Exceptionalism," I guess...

[TomGuy]

Seems to be an epidemic sweeping Europe. Maybe GWB contracted it on his trip last week and opens his eyes to OUR illegal immigration problem.

[Map Kernow]

You cannot maintain the American way of life, the kind of life I knew in the 50's and early 60's, if you open our borders to millions and millions of riff-raff. You just can't.

I agree, except I would add the qualification that you can't have the American middle-class way of life with such out-of-control immigration. Instead, you'll have the situation I increasingly see here in California: a wealthy suburbanite class living in homes that simply can't be had for less than $300,000, and a immigrant peon class to cut their grass, watch their kids, change their oil, wash their cars, etc., with the middle class being driven out to the desert or clean out of state. What's going to happen to the middle-class when all America becomes like California?

[meenie]

As Europe tightens the screws on immigration, where do you suppose the overflow is going to head for? The path of least resistance is going to be our front door. Already our culture is drifting to their culture rather than them adjusting to our culture. This is happening because we have already absorbed too many immigrants.

[Savage Beast]

The Spanish are aware, of course, that Islamic imperialists claim Andalusia as Muslim land.

Aren't they?

I don't know why Islamic imperialists should stop there, though. Why not claim everything south of Poitiers?

[Pelham]

Dreamer. He listens to Karl Rove, who says there is no immigration problem. Except that 245(i) must be passed to make them all legal, no matter how much it is opposed by the grass roots.

[brat]

Do you think we'll ever see the headline: US JOINS THE RUSH TO HALT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS?