SENEGAL: Spain says it will accept more Senegalese workers

Spain will admit many more Senegalese workers to its legal labour market as part of a strategy to stem an avalanche of African illegal migrants seeking jobs, the Spanish foreign minister said on Tuesday (October 10). Miguel Angel Moratinos made the announcement at the end of a two-day trip to Guinea, Gambia and Senegal that sought to advance a diplomatic offensive by Madrid to curb a flood of clandestine job-hunters pouring into Spain this year. In what appeared to be a major concession to Senegal by Spain's Socialist government, even though it faces intense pressure at home to toughen its immigration policy, he said channels would be opened to increase the hiring of Senegalese workers in Spain. "The novelty of this trip is that our two governments have reached the conclusion that Senegalese labour is required in Spain, that we need to favour legal migration," he told a news conference in Dakar after talks with his Senegalese counterpart. There were no details of how many more Senegalese workers might come to Spain under the new arrangement. Senegal is home to at least half of the 26,000 illegal migrants who have landed by boat in the Spanish Canary Islands this year. Moratinos signed a cooperation deal that would allow the West African nation to receive up to 15 million euros (19 million U.S. Dollars (USD)) of Spanish aid annually over five years. In Guinea and Gambia on Monday (October 9), the minister signed accords pledging 5 million euros (USD 6.3 million) of urgent aid to each country in return for cooperation by their governments to help repatriate their nationals who had entered Spain illegally. Moratinos, flanked by Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidane Gadio, said a bilateral mechanism would be created to allow "a very significant number of Senegalese" to be contracted by Spanish employers. This expanded legal migration channel, the two ministers said, would help to discourage clandestine trafficking of Africans to Europe, and would also satisfy Spain's labour needs. An agreement would be signed by the end of this year, or by early 2007, Moratinos said. The announcement came as a surprise because only last month a senior Spanish official, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Bernardino Leon, told Senegal's government that Spain's labour market could not absorb more immigrants. Thousands of young Africans seeking jobs and a new life in Europe have come ashore in the Canaries this year after making dangerous sea journeys, often of more than 1,000 km (600 miles), from the coast of West Africa in flimsy, open boats. Hundreds more are believed to have drowned or died of hunger, thirst or exhaustion. In August, Spain signed a separate agreement with Senegal allowing the deployment of joint Spanish, European Union and Senegalese sea and air patrols to spot and intercept boats carrying illegal migrants. Moratinos said that in recent weeks, arrivals of these migrant boats in the Canaries had diminished. Madrid has flown home more than 2,000 Senegalese illegal immigrants from the Canary Islands since mid-September.

ITN Source | October 11, 2006

Tags:. .immigrants. .affairs. .admit. .illegally. .agreement