Immigration crackdown sparks protests

A Ecuadorean immigrant protests against the new law

MADRID, Spain -- Tough new laws on immigration have come into force in Spain amid countrywide protests and hunger strikes by illegal workers who fear expulsion.

The measures, which have been denounced by opposition politicians, are aimed at stemming the record numbers of immigrants reaching Spain.

And according to some reports, an estimated 30,000 illegal immigrants could be told to leave Spain.

Protests flared throughout the country on Tuesday, while more than 300 immigrants from Asia, Latin America and sub-Saharan countries entered a fourth day of a hunger strike, sheltering in a church in the centre of Barcelona.

AUDIO CNN's Al Goodman: Tension in Spain 277K/25 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

The law stipulates new criteria for admitting foreign nationals, some based on their skills and willingness to work in places where labour is in shortest supply.

It denies immigrants the right to demonstrate, belong to a trade union or strike and also allows authorities to expel those without correct papers within 48 to 72 hours.

Left-wing opposition politicians and groups representing the rights of foreign nationals have attacked the new legislation sponsored by the conservative government.

"This is a law against workers who do not live, they barely survive," Diego Lopez Garrido, member of the left-wing Nueva Izquierda party, wrote in El Pais.

"It's a law that revives the divide between those who are free and those who are slaves."

Interior Minister Jaime Mayor Oreja rejected the criticism.

"They (critics) do not have a police-like vision," he said, adding the new law was intended to speed up the process by which illegal immigrants can get their papers.

The government says the measures aim to control rather than halt immigration. With the world's lowest birthrate, economists say Spain, with a 40 million population, needs to import more labour.

Mayor Oreja visited Morocco earlier on Tuesday as part of an effort to draw up labour programmes with countries who have been the source of most of Spain's immigrants.

He told Moroccan officials that Spain would not hunt down illegal immigrants but apply common sense as it prepares to deport thousands of them, mostly Moroccans.

The Spanish official said his government did not know exactly how many illegal immigrants were in Spain, dismissing a figure of 100,000 mentioned by the media.

However, of 15,000 illegal immigrants who were arrested last year entering Spain from North Africa, he said 12,000 of them came from Morocco. Dozens of others died trying to cross the Strait of Gibraltar in ramshackle boats.

Spain's head of immigration, Enrique Fernandez Miranda, was in Ecuador, which along with Morocco and Poland is the source of most of Spain's illegal immigrants.

Twelve Ecuadoreans without work papers died this month when a train struck their overcrowded truck as they headed to work in the fields of southern Spain, near the town of Lorca.

In 2000, four times as many people as in 1999 were arrested entering Spain from Morocco after crossing the treacherous 15-kilometre (nine mile) Straits of Gibraltar dividing Europe from Africa.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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