Spain seeks help to bar illegal entry

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azurefly

Moderator
This appears in Friday's local paper (can't find it online to link to it, so I'll retype it):


MADRID - After more than 250 migrants were intercepted trying to reach the Canary Islands in a 24-hour period, Spain's interior minister said Thursday that more European help is needed to stop the surge in illegal immigrants from Africa.

The new arrivals raised the total so far this year to more than 19,000, which is nearly four times the figure for last year. In August alone, more migrants have arrived than in all of 2005, the government said.

Many poor Africans try to migrate to Spain, which has become a springboard to a better life in this country or elsewhere in Europe.

Spanish authorities have complained that other European nations have failed to make good on pledges to send patrol boats and aircraft to help stem the flow after a similar spike in arrivals in May.

"Our countyr is simply the gateway to Europe," Alfredo Perez de Rubalcaba said, addressing Parliament. "It is clear that Spain alone cannot confront the migratory pressure from the African continent. It alone cannot undertake the task of controlling a border that is the most sensitive part of Europe's southern border."

Three crowded boats were intercepted as they tried to reach Tenerife, the island bearing the brunt of the influx of destitute people seeking a toehold in Europe, the Interior Ministry office there said.

Earlier this week, Deputy Prime Minister Marie Teresa Fernandez de la Vega visited Brussels and pressed European Union officials to consider the problem a European one, not just Spain's dilemma.
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This just bowls me right the hell over.

They are complaining about 19,000 illegal immigrants?! And they can't handle turning 19,000 illegal immigrants away without going begging around Europe for help? How many people come through Spanish airports and shipping ports legally every year, going through customs? It's got to be in the MILLIONS. How can they possibly claim that they can't keep under 20,000 people from arriving illegally?

And why should the U.S. care? (I'm glad the article didn't say that they had asked US for help! :rolleyes: )

What do you think? I think they can go jump in a lake. This is like someone with a sniffle complaining for help while his neighbor has malaria.


-azurefly
 
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