Spain: Immigrants struggle for papers and rights
01 January 2001
Twelve Ecuadorian undocumented migrant workers died while travelling in the back of a van when it collided with a moving train in Lorca (Murcia) on 3 January. It emerged that in order to avoid being stopped by the police, the thirteen migrant workers (one survived) were transported in a minibus with a maximum capacity for eight people, travelling at a very early hour, on a path unsuitable for vehicles. Their employer, Victor Liron Ruiz, owner of Greensol, was subsequently taken to court over a failure to pay agreed salaries to over 80 immigrants. The government promised a crackdown on businesses employing undocumented immigrants illegally, resulting in a massive loss of crops due to lack of manpower, as landowners preferred not to risk being fined.
Ecuadorian immigrants, many of whom thus became unemployable, responded by locking themselves in churches demanding regularisation and improved conditions. The Interior Ministry responded by offering those working illegally in Spain the chance to legalise their position if they accept to return to Ecuador. The offer was initially rejected by Ecuadorian collectives who explained that several among them contracted debts to travel to Spain, and that if the majority of Ecuadorians living illegally in Spain accepted the offer, the Spanish government would be unable to fulfil its promises. Employers' associations, faced with a labour shortage, also opposed the plans for voluntary repatriation. Nonetheless, two weeks before the end of February deadline 1,000 out of an estimated total of between 25,000 (official sources) and 150,000 (Rumi ahui a Spanish-Ecuatorian association) "illegal" Ecuadorian immigrants accepted the offer. Fifty were due to be flown to Ecuador on an Iberia flight on 19 February.
The bilateral agreement between Spain and Ecuador on the regulation and organisation of "migratory fluxes", signed on 31 December by Spain's Interior Minister, Mayor Oreja, and Ecuador's Foreign Minister, Heinz Moller Freire, represents a blueprint for agreements which Spain is also negotiating with Morocco and Poland. The agreement stipulates that the Spanish authorities, acting through the Spanish embassy in Quito, will inform the Ecuadorian authorities of the numbers and characteristics of workers required to fulfil the vacancies available. A Spanish-Ecuatorian Selection Commission will be responsible for screening applicants to select those individuals who are most suitable for existing work offers. Those selected will receive contracts, visas (under a fast-track procedure) and will work under the same conditions as the local workforce. It will also be possible to exercise the right to family reunion.
Immigrants selected to work on a seasonal basis will have to sign a commitment to return to Ecuador at the end of their period of employment. They will have to go to the Spanish consulate in Quito within a month of the end of their employment, or they will not be allowed back into Spain for five years. Each contracting party will readmit its nationals when their requirements for entry or residence cease to be valid. There is no distinction made between people expelled and people who return voluntarily, although measures to assist voluntary repatriation on the part of both countries are envisaged. The readmission clause will also apply to third country nationals and stateless persons who no longer fulfil the requirements to reside in the contracting party requesting readmission if they have "entered the territory ... after having stayed, resided or passed through the Requested Party's territory".
The issue of repatriation is becoming a sticking point in negotiations with Morocco said Omar Azziman, the Morrocan Justice Minister. A proposed agreement was submitted by Spain to the Moroccan authorities on 23 January. Azziman said his compatriots "cannot be expelled unless there are exceptional circumstances in which they have committed crimes". Azziman added that "Moroccans living a