SPAIN: Foreign Ministers from Mediterranean EU countries gather to discuss illegal migration across maritime borders

Ministers from Europe's Mediterranean nations gathered on Friday (September 29) to discuss illegal immigration amid criticism that a Spanish amnesty for undocumented foreigners triggered a relentless wave of poor Africans trying to reach the Canary Islands. Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative French interior minister and presidential hopeful, has come to the Madrid meeting with a proposal for all EU members to be held to the same admission standards. Sarkozy has said last year's amnesty for around 600,000 undocumented foreigners in Spain encouraged other Africans to try to reach the Canary Islands or the Spanish mainland, seeking a foothold in Europe to flee grinding poverty at home. So far, more than 24,000 Africans have been caught trying to reach the Spanish archipelago off west Africa this year, about five times the number for all of 2005. Italy has caught more than 12,000 trying to reach Sicily. The 25-member EU has no common immigration policy, and the issue is handled individually by member states. The bloc has been trying to devise a joint plan for years, but the effort has bogged down over the complexity of aligning national immigration rules and discord over whether countries should give up control over who they let across their borders. Friday's one-day meeting is expected to discuss this effort and let countries compare notes on how they cope with illegal immigration from Africa. "We all know that we are not going to find a magic, immediate and miraculous solution but we all know that the best way to respond to this challenge is by assuming our portion of responsibility in order to work towards a common European immigration policy with solidarity and coherent that allows us to respond to this challenges,"Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos said at the meeting. For Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, an agreement on repatriations has to be one of the most important steps of the meeting. "My experience and my government's experience is that repatriations are crucial because when the mafias are telling them (immigrants) 'if you arrive in Spain, you stay in Spain and in Europe, the repatriations send another message which is: your arrival in Spain is not a guarantee of your stay," Rubalcaba said during his opening remarks of the meeting that brings together foreign and interior ministers or lower-level delegations from Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Slovenia, and several senior EU officials, including Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero criticized Sarkozy specifically in a parliamentary debate Wednesday. He said that given the riots that swept poor, immigrant-rich neighbourhoods last year in the Paris suburbs, Sarkozy was in no position to give Spain lessons on how to deal with and assimilate foreigners. The French government is pushing a bill in parliament that would stiffen the rules for immigrants in France, establish a sort of quota system and give authorities power to cherry-pick who gets in. Zapatero's government has defended its amnesty as a way to root out a flourishing underground economy, end employer abuse of undocumented workers and get the immigrants to pay taxes into government coffers. Officials say it was a one-time deal, with no plans for a repetition any time soon. Last week, an EU justice and interior ministers meeting in Finland avoided making new pledges of aid in response to urgent pleas from Spain, Italy, Greece and Malta for more help in dealing with illegal immigrants from Africa. Spain has complained that only three EU members contributed planes or boats in August to a hastily arranged EU plan to patrol African waters and prevent departures. At that meeting, too, several member states condemned the Spanish amnesty, which they see as the perfect way to lure more Africans who might eventually end up on the streets of Berlin, Vienna or anywhere else in the bloc.

ITN Source | September 29, 2006

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