"French minister warns Europe over illegal immigration
Sunday, October 1, 2006 at 07:05 EDT

MADRID — French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday warned European governments that failure to turn back a tide of clandestine immigrants could fuel an explosion of xenophobia in Europe.

His warning came on his arrival here to attend a meeting of ministers from eight countries to thrash out ways of tackling the crisis on the continent's borders, where illegal immigration has reached alarming proportions.

"The crisis confronting Europe is only beginning. If we decide not to act, we are going to give rise to xenophobic sentiments in our societies which we will not be able to control," Sarkozy told reporters.

He applauded the "courage" of Spain's attempts to repatriate thousands of mainly west African illegal immigrants and repeated his criticism of earlier amnesties, saying such moves only worsened the problem and fed xenophonia.

"The best solution is not to grant papers to everybody. Unfortunately France experimented with the mass granting of papers in 1997 and that led to an explosion in demands, four times more refugees," Sarkozy told reporters here.

Spain sees itself in the front line of the battle and is desperate for assistance to help cope with the huge wave of immigrants — 25,000 this year alone — currently overwhelming authorities in the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa.

Sarkozy is a right-wing French presidential hopeful and has already staked out a tough line on crime and immigration ahead of elections due in April.

He caused a stir here before his arrival when he criticized a decision by Spain to legalize 600,000 undocumented aliens last year.

Later during the meeting, Sarkozy called for a Europe-wide ban on mass amnesties for illegal immigrants and by warning of rising xenophobia in Europe if the influx if not turned back.

His views are shared by other countries like Germany and by Spain's opposition conservatives.

"When one country grants papers, it does so for itself but also for all the Schengen space. When someone is legalized in Spain they have the right to enter France," he told journalists.

Sarkozy's proposal was "well received" by the delegates, Spanish secretary of state for security, Antonio Camacho, said after the meeting.

Ministers from the eight countries — Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain — were joined at the talks here by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Ritva Viljanen, state secretary for the interior ministry from EU presidency holder Finland.

Franco Frattini and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European commissioners for justice and security and external relations respectively, were also present, as well as the director of Frontex, the EU's stretched external border agency.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos opened the meeting with a call for "more solidarity and coherence" between EU states to deal with illegal immigration, calling it the "great challenge of the 21st century."

Spain's Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said that a concerted EU policy of repatriation was "fundamental."

The meeting ended with the delegates forming a joint proposal to reinforced cooperation between European states and manage the immigration influx off the southern coasts of Europe.

The proposal includes a European network of coastal patrols, monitoring close to the African coastlines. It will be presented to an informal European summit on Oct 20 in Finland."

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