Spanish Parliament Approves Controversial Reform of Immigration Law

Global Insight
October 30, 2009
By Dragana Ignjatovia

Spain's lower house of parliament yesterday approved controversial reforms to the country's immigration law.

The reforms include an extension to the period that illegal immigrants can be held and detained before being deported from 40 days to 60 days.

They also allow non-government organisations (NGOs) and private entities to take custody of minors travelling alone, imposing restrictions on parents joining children emigrating to Spain. The amendments were approved by 185 votes to 146.

The bill is now due to be presented to the upper house of parliament for final approval. If the bill gains final approval, it will come into effect in 2010.

Congress also passed a legislative transparency reform, meaning that its members can no longer vote in secret on matters concerning personal business activities that could cause conflicts with their jobs as lawmakers.

Significance:Spain's pursuit of more stringent immigration legislation is in line with a growing European trend, most apparent in Italy, towards limits on illegal immigration.

The amendments to the Immigration Law have been widely criticised by other countries, as well as human rights organisations, on the grounds that it is wrong to detain illegal immigrants longer than criminal suspects.

The opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) has, however, said that the legislation does not go far enough to deter illegal immigration.

Anti-immigration sentiment is currently rising in Spain, inspired by the country's recession, which has seen unemployment soar to 18%.

Immigration has long been a sensitive political issue in Spain, with large numbers of immigrants having arrived in the country over the last decade to work in the booming construction industry.

However, since the economic downturn has led to the virtual collapse of the real-estate sector, popular sentiment has turned against the large number of immigrants who now find themselves unemployed and reliant on the welfare state.

The increasing anger of the Spanish electorate was perfectly captured by a 2008 poll by the Real Instituto Elcano think-tank, which indicated that 46% of Spaniards consider immigration to be a serious threat.

The socialist government has adopted an increasingly hardline stance on legal, as well as illegal, immigration as the country's economic fortunes have declined.

These reforms, which affect both legal and illegal immigrants, have already proved very popular with the electorate, winning voters' support almost immediately after their unveiling last year.

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