The Council of Ministers of the José Maria Aznar government approved a reform of the Ley de extranjería (immigration law) on 16 May 2003, a week before local elections were held across Spain. Aznar justified
The Council of Ministers of the José Maria Aznar government approved a reform of the
Ley de extranjería (immigration law) on 16 May 2003, a week before local elections were
held across Spain. Aznar justified toughening the measures in the law because “the capacity
for receiving (immigrants) is not unlimited”. The proposed new measures include a fast-track
systematic expulsion procedure for illegal residents, expanding the right to detain migrants
undergoing expulsion proceedings in detention centres, and expanding the possibility of
expelling foreigners against whom charges have been brought in Spanish courts. Carrier
sanctions and the substitution of residence permits and employment permits by visas serving
as authorisation to work and reside in Spain will also be introduced. Spanish NGO SOS
Racismo criticised the “continuing electoral use of immigration by the Partido Popular (PP)”
and its attempts “to reap the fruits of its xenophobic arguments”. The Ley de extranjería
was first introduced in January 2000, and has been subsequently been reformed on three
occasions (this will be the fourth) which have made its provisions tougher. The latest
proposed reform follows rulings by the Supreme Court, that annulled 11 articles of the
Regulation implementing the Ley de extranjería, because they affect fundamental rights
which cannot be regulated by decree (see Statewatch vol 13 no 2). The government´s
response to this ruling was that the annulled articles would be included in the Ley de
extranjería. Some of the measures represent the incorporation of European Council
Directives into Spanish legislation; this is the case for carrier sanctions (Directive
2001/51/CE, of 28 June 2001), and the mutual recognition of decisions on the expulsion of
third-country nationals (Directive 2001/40/CE, of 28 May 2001).
Expanding surveillance to airlines and civil society
Through the reform, the government will seek to force airlines to pass on passenger data to
authorities on request, to toughen their visa and document checks, and to send Spanish
border police passenger data before take-off as an early stage of border controls. Airlines
will also be required to help immigration authorities to track down visa overstayers by
compiling dossiers of passengers who fail to make use of their return ticket, as the entry
requirements are possession of a visa (tourist visas are valid for three months), a return
ticket and a fixed amount of money. Airlines are reportedly opposing the changes, but the
draft law looks to impose carrier sanctions including fines of up to 60,000 Euros for “very
serious” cases in which airlines fail to cooperate, such as the failure to provide passenger
data to Spanish authorities prior to take-off. In the case of failure to control documents,
visas and the validity of documents adequately fines of between 3,000 and 6,000 Euros
may be imposed per person carried, or a single fine of 500,000 Euros (without taking into
account the number of persons carried). Airlines, which were already responsible for taking
charge of persons that they had carried to Spain without adequate documentation, will also
be made to take charge of transit passengers who do not end up in their final destination, or
are returned to Spain by authorities in that country.
On 15 April 2003, the Interior ministry and the International Organisation for Migrations
(IOM) had signed a convention in which the IOM committed itself to creating “a network
for alerting and reporting from society, with the participation of organisations and local
operators” to detect the “new presence of undocumented immigrants” and to “combat illegal
migration”. Spanish daily newspaper El País reported that the government and IOM will
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