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SPAIN: At Least 100,000 Immigrants Left Out of Amnesty

Alicia Fraerman

MADRID, May 9 2005 (IPS) - Around 100,000 undocumented immigrants did not apply for the amnesty in Spain, according to the government, while the opposition puts the number at one million.

Labour Minister Rafael Caldera reported Monday that 690,679 migrants signed up for residence and work permits during the three-month qualification period, which ended Saturday.

But the interception of a boat carrying 59 migrants, including eight children, shows that the influx of immigrants is not letting up.

Yolanda Villavicencio, president of the Americas Spain Solidarity and Cooperation Association (AESCO), described the amnesty process as positive, although she told IPS that "there is still much to be done, with respect to the situation of migrants in Spain as well as providing effective cooperation to help change conditions in their countries of origin.

"It is the dire economic, political and social situations in which they live" in their home countries that drives so many people to venture abroad, "even risking their lives and those of their children," she added.

Pregnant women who are near term or mothers with infant children are often among the migrants seeking to make it to Spanish shores in precarious boats and thus earn residence papers, because under Spanish law, small children and their mothers cannot be deported.

Shallow duck-hunting boats known as "pateras" are commonly employed by people traffickers because they are able to navigate in shallow waters near shore where Coast Guard vessels cannot follow them.

Although the arrival of immigrants by sea or the sinking of their boats captures the most media attention, undocumented foreigners also enter Spain by air or land from other European countries.

While according to Minister Caldera, some 100,000 migrants failed to sign up for the amnesty, Mariano Rajoy, the president of the centre-right Popular Party, the main opposition force, said the total was actually 10 times that.

But Villavicencio estimated the number at perhaps 300,000, including the wives and grown children of applicants, or immigrants whose employers did not sponsor them.

Under the process that opened on Feb. 7 and ended Saturday, residence and work permits are to be issued to undocumented immigrants able to show that they have lived in Spain for at least six months, and who presented a contract from their employer for the next six months or more.

According to municipal records, there are around 1.4 million undocumented immigrants in this country of 40 million.

A total of 120,000 foreigners were deported by Spain in 2004, 30,000 more than in 2003.

At the start of the three-month period, the government of socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero made it clear that once the deadline was up, Spain’s law on aliens would be strictly enforced.

That means that any migrant interested in working in Spain in the future will need to previously obtain an entry visa and sign a work contract before arriving in the country, or face deportation.

In a news briefing Monday, Caldera said that today in Spain there are "better prospects for economic and social development and greater dignity," because so many jobs have been "brought out of the black economy."

Under the amnesty, employers who sponsored their undocumented employees were not subject to the fines that they would otherwise have had to pay for hiring foreign workers without papers.

The newly legalised residents and their employers will thus begin to contribute an additional 1.5 billion euros (over 1.9 billion dollars) a year to the social security system, said Caldera.

Eighty percent of the applications filed were accepted, nine percent are still awaiting the completion of paperwork, and only three percent were turned down.

But the non-governmental organisation SOS Racismo has appealed the applications that were rejected by the authorities.

The labour minister said all of the cases should be completed by July.

The migrants had to show that they have no criminal record and that they have been listed on municipal registries in Spain since August at the very least.

Of the nearly 700,000 applicants, 30 percent are domestic workers, 20 percent work in construction, 20 percent have jobs in tourism and trade, 13 percent work in agriculture, and the rest are employed in others sectors of the economy.

The largest groups of applicants were from Ecuador, Romania, Morocco and Colombia.

When asked why a significant number of immigrants did not apply for the amnesty, Caldera said they were mainly workers who do not have steady employment, but work for a few days or weeks on a construction site, in a private home or in the fields before moving on to their next job.

AESCO and other NGOs are calling for industrialised countries like Spain to increase development aid to poor nations and to open their markets to products from the developing South.

The head of AESCO said that above and beyond any amnesty, a major effort should be put on boosting development in poor countries, "where people suffer economic hardships that are unthinkable in Europe, as well as extremely difficult situations under dictatorships.

"No fences or police and military controls can keep out those who try to come to Europe in search of a better life for themselves and their families," she added.

Some of the applicants who were turned down failed to provide proof that they were listed on the municipal registries where they live.

Diego Lorente, a lawyer with SOS Racismo, argued that other evidence showing that migrants have been in the country for six months should also be accepted, such as passports containing the date of entry, or a train ticket, for example.

Minister Caldera pointed out that those who did not sign up for the amnesty still have a chance to prove that they have lived in Spain for at least six months, "or they will be deported in humane conditions. There is no other alternative. Our immigration policy must be serious and unyielding."