SPAIN: Authorities want help with illegal immigrants

Spain on Monday (September 4, 2006) demanded that African countries do more to stop illegal migration as the number of desperate Africans arriving in the Canary Islands after a risky voyage on packed boats broke new records. The rate of arrivals in the Canary Islands off the African coast hit a new level at the weekend. The central government's office said 1,965 Africans had arrived since Friday (September 1) -- nearly half the total during the whole of 2005. No-one knows how many people die in the open wooden boats known as Cayucos or Pateras, but this year alone, Canary authorities say they have accounted for hundreds of bloated bodies floating in the sea or washed up on beaches. Spain is angry, saying that African countries are not cooperating enough with the repatriation of their citizens, who risk their lives on a dangerous voyage hundreds of kilometres (miles) up West African coasts to the Canaries. Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said in a speech to Spanish ambassadors in Madrid on Monday: "I want to make it clear. Every person that enters Spain illegally will leave sooner or later. This has to be known by those who come and also by their countries of origin." Fernandez de la Vega did not say how the government would go about rounding up and repatriating the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants already estimated to be living in Spain. The latest figures for the Canaries compared with 4,751 Africans arriving there in all of 2005 and took the number of migrants landing in the islands so far in 2006 to 21,501. Spain also wants the European Union (EU) to strengthen up a maritime patrol fleet meant to deter would-be migrants and to define a policy for its sea borders. Almost all migrants arriving in the Canary Islands refuse to say where they come from, making deportation even more difficult. After landing in the Canaries they are flown to mainland Spain and held in detention centres. Such is the case of a group of 95 men staying for 40 days in an immigration centre in the Spanish village of Miraflores, about 50 kilometres from Madrid. All of them made the journey to the Canary Islands after paying smugglers approximately 400 Euros to get a place in one of the wooden boats. Dame Ndiaye, a 25-year-old Senegalese who arrived in Tenerife on August 3, travelled for one week along with 70 other men. He said on Monday that they were lucky not to have any major problems during the journey. Just when they had run out of fuel, they were rescued by a Spanish Civil Guard vessel which guided them to the port of Los Cristianos in Tenerife. Ndiaye has contacted an uncle who lives in southern Spain and has promised to help him find a job. "We have come here to work in the fields, industries or in the small trade. We want to earn money to share it with our families," Ndiaye told Reuters Television According to the non-governmental organisation (NGO) supporting the Spanish government in this process, the immigrants arrive in Spain with a false image of their future. "They come on a cloud, the mafias give them a very positive prospective of their trip and future in Spain. But it is only when they arrive here when we present the reality, we tell them what is their immigration situation and how they can be deported if they don't have a work permit. Then is when they get depressed and we have to initiate psychological therapy," said Julio Caricol, spokesman for the Movement for Peace, Disarmament and Freedom (MPDL), one of five organisations currently working with African immigrants in Spain. After spending 40 days in the Miraflores immigration centre, the immigrants get a piece of paper asking them to leave the country -- and are allowed to go free. After helping them to make contacts with relatives or friends in Spain, the NGOs provide them with a transportation ticket, 40 Euros and a bag with food for their new journey. "I will return to Senegal as soon as I have enough to help my family," Dame Ndiaye told Reuters before getting on the bus that was taking him to the train station on his way to the southern city Almeria. Spanish officials say they recognise the root cause of the problem of illegal arrivals in the Canaries is poverty in Africa. Polls show immigration is identified as the country's biggest problem by a growing proportion of Spaniards.

ITN Source | September 5, 2006

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