Spain declared an amnesty Sunday for about 700,000 illegal immigrants -- bucking a Europe-wide trend of cracking down on economic migrants, while striking at exploitation of those working secretly and fearfully in the black economy.
The Socialist government claimed that a three-month qualification period that ended at the weekend -- during which illegal workers and their employers could apply for residency and work permits -- had attracted most of the country's illegal workers.
"We can feel very satisfied," said the labor minister, Jesus Caldera. "Almost 700,000 jobs brought out of the black economy -- that represents 80 percent to 90 percent of all such jobs held by immigrants in Spain."
Officials said that, with workers' families included, more than a million people would no longer have to hide from police or labor inspectors.
Long queues had built up outside government offices as the deadline for the amnesty drew near. Ecuadorians, Romanians, Moroccans and Colombians made up most of the applications. "If you get the papers, you go from being nobody to being somebody ... you exist," one Ecuadoran, Alvaro Salgado, 30, told reporters as he queued to apply on Saturday.
Critics said the amnesty had attracted a flood of extra immigrants, including many who had been living illegally in France, Germany and Italy.
"There are now three times as many illegal immigrants as there were a year ago," said Ana Pastor, social affairs spokeswoman for the opposition conservative People's party. "Spain is considered an easy ride."
The newspaper El Mundo said in an editorial: "On the horizon one can detect new avalanches of migrants -- encouraged by this process -- who could bring with them problems of crime and integration."
Caldera denied the claims, saying police figures showed that illegal immigration was on the wane.
Police have expelled more than 1,000 immigrants -- many of them Pakistani -- back across the French border over the past month.
Spain, a country which still recalls the emigration experiences of millions of its own people, has seen a massive growth in immigration over the past five years as a booming economy has sought fresh, cheap labor.
Spain recently overtook France as a host country for migrants after seeing numbers quadruple to 3.7 million people, or 8.4 percent of the population, since 2000.
The sudden influx has, so far, caused relatively few problems and little heated political debate -- possibly because many of the newcomers are from Latin America and share the same language and religion.
Yesterday, however, government officials were still trying to calm tension in the Madrid neighborhood of Villaverde, where a Spanish youth was stabbed to death by an immigrant 10 days ago.
Migrants have turned around a recent population decline in Spain and have helped fuel consumer growth in the economy.
Spain has organized six immigration amnesties since 1990, several of them under the former People's party government.
"They are justifiable because they are the only way to deal with situations that are humanely and socially unsustainable and which harm the economy," commented the pro-Socialist newspaper El Pais yesterday.
Caldera said the amnesty would lead to an increase in social security contributions of about 1.5 billion euros a year.
Officials say the extra contributions will help offset a looming pensions crisis.
Caldera added, however, that there would be no more amnesties. He announced an immediate crackdown on black-market employers and newly arrived illegal workers.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number