Close to 86,000 Moroccans submitted files during regularisation operation
Morocco-Spain, Local, 5/10/2005

Some 690,679 undocumented people, including 85,696 Moroccans, registered to regularise their status in Spain part of the exceptional regularisation process launched by this South-West European country.

Figures released Monday by the Spanish labour ministry show Ecuadorians came first with 139,714 filed submitted, followed by Romanians with 118,298 file and Moroccans with 85,969.

Overall Latin American nationals presented the greatest number of regularisation files, during the three week exceptional operation, among a total number of 160 nationalities.

Household servants ranked first as to profession categories with 30 percent of the files, the construction sector second with 20.7 pc, agriculture and animal husbandry 14.6 pc, hotel industry 10.3 percent and retail trade 4.7 pc.

The three main regions with important numbers of illegal immigrants are Madrid (170,000), Barcelona (138,000) and Valencia (106,000).

Spanish labour minister said the operation was successful "and unique in the History of industrialized countries," adding concerned people "feel better, already," but noted hundreds of thousand of illegal immigrants did not submit files, including those whose bosses would not hand them the necessary papers to do so. Caldera said these people can invoke having worked long in Spain, or social or humanitarian reasons to regularise their situation, otherwise they will be expelled, from "now on, no one can work without contract." Unscrupulous employers will be prosecuted, he went on to say.

Previous Stories:
  Spanish NGOs denounce expulsion of minors without guarantees   (5/5/2005)
  Moroccan car thieves network dismantled in Spain   (4/20/2005)
  Spanish police nab Moroccan for possible involvement in Madrid bombings   (4/13/2005)

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