Posted on 05/19/2006 5:46:40 PM PDT by traumer
Spain has put the last touches to initiatives, including a strengthened presence in Africa, to try to stem the swelling tide of immigrants from the continent heading for its shores.
The government's plan was agreed as it was announced that a total of 656 African illegal immigrants had arrived in Spain's Canary Islands in the space of 24 hours.
In Madrid Deputy Prime Minister Maria-Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said after a cabinet meeting she would be going to Brussels next week to discuss the issue with, among others, European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso.
She said that "more Europe" had to be one of the weapons in the battle against would-be illegal immigration.
An "Africa plan" was to be implemented within the space of 48 hours, said de la Vega. The headquarters will be in the Senegalese capital Dakar, under the supervision of a specially appointed ambassador, Miguel Angel Mazarambroz.
His staff will cover the west African states Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Senegal.
The Spanish official said embassies would be opened in Mali and Cape Verde and the mission in Sudan would be reopened to reinforce Spain's diplomatic presence in sub-Saharan Africa, at present limited to embassies in eight states (Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Senegal).
The diplomats will seek over a three to six month period to reach deals on the repatriation of illegal immigrants similar to accords already concluded with Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and Nigeria.
Illegal immigrants can only be expelled if such agreements exist and above all if their countries of origin can be determined. Otherwise the Spanish authorities have to free them after 40 days with a notice of expulsion that cannot be implemented.
The scale of the problem is illustrated by figures showing that with well over 1,000 arrivals in the Canary Islands this week alone, the total for the year to date is now 7,384. That compared with 4,751 for the whole of last year and 8,500 in 2004.
According to the Red Cross, hundreds of would-be immigrants have drowned in seas off Spain since the end of last year. Many travel in overcrowded makeshift boats not suited to the high seas.
Red Cross workers on the Canaries say they are overwhelmed with the "avalanche" of people arriving every day, many of whom are in need of immediate medical treatment.
In all, around 2,400 immigrants without papers are awaiting processing in the archipelago.
The Canary Islands, Spanish territory and therefore part of the European Union, have been targeted by would-be immigrants since passage became more difficult from Morocco to Europe via the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, the scene last year of violent attempts by would-be immigrants to storm them. Sixteen people died in the incidents after which prospective immigrants were rounded up and dumped in the desert. Since then security measures have been tightened on both sides of the Mediterranean.
There have been cases of the Spanish navy turning back boatloads of would-be immigrants off the coast of the Canary Islands.
crocodiles with high powered lasers attached to their heads? :)
Who would of thought it? The free world overthrown by people just trying to do the jobs others won't do?
Bye - bye Spain....
Yeah, cause obviously no one in the civilized world works....ever.
The scale of the problem is illustrated by figures showing that with well over 1,000 arrivals in the Canary Islands this week alone, the total for the year to date is now 7,384. That compared with 4,751 for the whole of last year and 8,500 in 2004.
Ping.
There were the visigoths, and the ostragoth, the huns, and the vandals.
So the lo-tech primitive gets the upper hand by default?
It is his choice to do whatever it is he does. Taking advantage of "more civilized, enlightened" societies is part of the game, and a personally profitable one.
The only options are defeat by allowing him to remain or defeat by not knowing what to do with him? Defeat by any other name...
The solution is obvious. If he will not reveal his country of origin, he is towed 500 miles out to sea with 100 others and left to fend for himself. See how many times he wants to try that...
How many times did this need to be repeated?
My guess is, once they know it's serious and certain, second thoughts creep in.
Countries like Spain and Italy, on the boder with the "barbarians", thought that they were buying into an economic union and a common market, not into letting a non-entity like Belgium control their sovereignty in internal affairs, such as establishing the rules for allowing residency and citizenship.
That gives me a fresh thought. Whenever an illegal's country of origin cannot be established, they should all be shipped to Belgium... or Holland.
Imagine that BUMP! :o)
How dare they call them "illegal immigrants"? Don't they know they're supposed to be called "undocumented workers"? /sarcasm off
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