SPAIN: Ministers from Europe's Mediterranean nations gather to discuss illegal immigration amidst criticism for Spanish immigration policies

Ministers from Europe's Mediterranean nations gathered in Madrid 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, attended the 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. "But what is the proposal I am being offered? To legalise (control the number of immigrants) so that more (immigrants) will come back? All the countries who have legalised - take a look at Spain - did the government of Mr. Aznar legalise? The answer is yes. So how is it that a country which did legalise five years ago, has to re-legalise again today? You told me look, of course we need controls - so, in three years, you will have to legalise again. In Italy, Mr Berlusconi, there has been one million legalised cases (immigrants). Mr Amato (Italian Interior Minister Guiliano Amato) had just legalise 300,000 cases. Is this the solution?" Sarkozy said during a news conference in the Spanish capital. 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 discussed this effort and let countries compare notes on how they cope with illegal immigration from Africa. Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de La Vega said that what Spain did last year was not an indiscriminate amnesty for illegal immigrants. "There should not be regularisations without a work contract. Each case should be studied individually. That's how we did it last year," she said during her closing remarks of the meeting that brought 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. 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 30, 2006

Tags:. .handled. .conservative. .africans. .regularisations. .individually