MIGRATION-SPAIN: Death Comes by Sea

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

By Tito Drago

MADRID, Jan 16 2004 (IPS) - Sixteen people drowned Friday when their precarious boat capsized off the coast of Spain’s Canary Islands. The tragedy is further evidence that the wave of illegal immigration continues despite the risk of death during the journey and the potential repression and misery awaiting those who do make it to the “promised land” of Europe.

The number of victims could rise, as three more of the 28 people who were aboard the boat have not been accounted for. The 16 deaths represent 10 percent of the fatalities of would-be immigrants recorded along Spain’s coastline last year.

The worst death toll came Oct. 17, when 37 people died as they tried to reach Spain by sea and without passing through official immigration channels because they did not hold the necessary documents.

The boat that capsized Friday after running into submerged rocks off the beaches of Fuerteventura was made of wood and had sailed from Morocco. The Spanish authorities arrested the nine people who survived the tragedy.

The flow of undocumented immigrants continues. Many are able to elude physical danger and the long arm of the border patrols, but that does not necessarily mean they are able to make it through Spain’s door to a better life in Western Europe.

Claudia, a 19-year-old from Romania, is on the list of the few immigrants who have been able to escape expulsion from Spain at the last minute.

She and her husband were arrested in the southern province of Córdoba when it was found that they did not possess the documents for legal residence in Spain. Wednesday, the police were taking the couple to the Madrid-Barajas airport to put them on a flight back to Romania when Claudia, pregnant, began to feel ill.

The police stopped at a restaurant along the road between Córdoba and Madrid so that Claudia could use the restroom.

A few minutes later, they realised that her water had broken. The police called an ambulance and the paramedics attended to Claudia, delivering a baby boy.

The couple was immediately released because Spanish law stipulates that in such cases, “for humanitarian reasons”, the immigrants should not be kept in detention.

The aircraft that Claudia and her husband were to board took off Thursday night, carrying 70 immigrants back to Romania.

Similar flights take place every week, heading to that country and to others, such as Ecuador, Nigeria and Colombia, with two Spanish police officers accompanying each of the individuals being sent back to their country of origin.

Now Claudia, according to her statements to the Madrid daily El País, wants to remain in Spain with her husband to bring up their son here. “Because in our country there is only poverty, and we don’t want that for our baby.” She did not say, however, where they would go once she was released from the hospital.

In contrast, everyone knows where another Romanian woman is. Lammita, 38, became famous throughout Spain when on Jan. 1 she gave birth to her son, the first baby to be born in Spain in 2004. She lives in Zaragoza.

At the hospital, the new mother received a letter of congratulations from Marcelino Iglesias, president of the Autonomous Community of Aragón, where Zaragoza is located.

Lammita, her three-year-old daughter and the newborn boy made the news again 15 days later, when the daily El Periódico de Aragón published a photo of them panhandling on the Zaragoza streets.

Upon receiving the news, the Aragón government issued an order to locate the mother and her children in order to offer help to the family and to ensure the rights and well being of the two young children.

The Romanian mother had received offers of aid when she was in the hospital, but she refused them, reported El Periódico. According to the newspaper, Lammita’s refusal could be because she may have been brought to Spain by one of many people trafficking mafias to panhandle or engage in other activities.

These criminal organisations often bring women from other countries to work as domestic employees or force them into prostitution and then keep part of their earnings.

Another aspect of the illegal immigration phenomenon is that there are dozens of municipalities in the Basque and Catalonian regions that are opposed to providing information on immigrants to the police or to the national Spanish government.

Until December 2003, anyone in the country, with or without a visa or a residency permit, had the right to register with the local government and to receive the corresponding social benefits, including health services.

The municipalities granted residency status, requiring nothing more than that the applicant fill out a form and establish a home within the city limits. The form and the related information remained in the possession of the respective municipality.

With the new Law on Foreigners, championed by the government of centre-right Prime Minister José María Aznar and approved by Parliament thanks to his party’s absolute majority, the municipal governments are obligated to share all information about the persons in their registries with the central government.

The local governments in the Basque Country and Catalonia are refusing to provide that information to the central government, heeding a request from a non-governmental organisation that supports immigrants’ rights, Apoyo a Inmigrantes Rompiendo Barreras.

(END/IPS/EU-MM/PR-HD/TRASO-LD/TD/DM/04)