-Caveat Lector-
>From wsws.org
{{Hmmm ... Mr. Solana enters where, when, how ?}}
> > ""All of them agree, however, that immigration into Spain should be
> > stopped and so concur with Spain's role as African gatekeeper for
> > the European Union.""
>
> World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --
>
>
> WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe
>
> Spain strengthens borders against African refugees
>
> By Vicky Short
> 2 June 1999
>
> Back to screen version
>
> The Spanish government is seeking to further strengthen its borders in
> order to exclude those fleeing from hunger and war in Africa. Last
> year, Spain constructed two 4 metre-high steel walls, 7 kilometres in
> length, on the African side of the Gibraltar Strait. This was to
> prevent refugees getting across into Spanish Morocco and then on into
> Spain. The desperation animating those seeking refuge was graphically
> illustrated at the beginning of this year, when a group of them,
> caught trying to climb these walls, threw a pregnant woman over so
> that she could be cared for in a hospital in Spanish Morocco.
>
> The Aznar government has now pledged to spend a further £100 million
> to shield the southern border of Spain as well. The plan, code-named
> “South Frontier”, is to be implemented by the Civil Guard. Described
> as an “Integrated System of External Vigilance” (its Spanish
> acronym—SIVE), it utilises the latest technology in long-distance
> radar systems, thermal cameras, night viewfinders, infrared optics,
> helicopters and patrol boats. The operation will be controlled from a
> co-ordinating centre in Algeciras, for which the Civil Guard will
> recruit 300 more policemen.
>
> This complex surveillance system is being devised in order to detect
> the small, precarious, boats, called pateras, used by people
> attempting to cross from Africa to Spain through the Strait of
> Gibraltar. At its narrowest point, the distance between Spain and
> Africa is just 12 kilometres.
>
> The director-general of the Civil Guard explained, “The objective is
> to mount a system of radar on both sides of the Strait, which can send
> the information to an integrated information centre to be
> automatically processed and where thermal cameras will be activated.”
> These cameras will be able to detect the warmth emitted by a human
> body, enabling the authorities to determine how many people are
> travelling in the patera.
>
> What action will then be taken was not explained, but the impact of
> searchlights, helicopters and patrol boats on those being hunted down
> is not difficult to predict. Already, large numbers of immigrants have
> lost their lives while attempting to cross the Gibraltar Strait. Last
> May, smugglers forced 30 Moroccan immigrants to jump into the water
> from one of these tiny boats. They were told that they were close to
> the coast and could reach Spain easily by swimming. In reality, they
> were still several miles off. In the darkness, 13 drowned and their
> bodies were washed onto the beach of Arzila.
>
> In addition to SIVE, a new armed border force will be able to use the
> infrastructure already in place by the Minister of Defence. The
> government is hoping that the European Union will contribute to the
> cost of this complicated man-hunting project, arguing that it affects
> other countries as well, given the elimination of inner-European
> frontiers contained in the Schengen Treaty.
>
> The Church, the Pro-Human Rights Association, SOS Racism and various
> political parties have voiced protests against the government's plans.
> “Church Migrations” accused the government of having lost all ethics
> and of championing social divisions. Pro-Human Rights declared that if
> the government went ahead with such a project, it would be breaching
> the Spanish constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human
> Rights. The Socialist Party opposition said it was a waste of money
> and proposed, as an alternative, an “in-depth re-consideration” of the
> Alien Status Law, especially the annual quota for admitting foreign
> workers. Izquierda Unida (a coalition of left, nationalist and radical
> groups headed by the Communist Party) said it was “madness” to spend
> £100 million to shield the Gibraltar Strait, instead of investing it
> on the integration of those foreigners already in the country.
>
> All of them agree, however, that immigration into Spain should be
> stopped and so concur with Spain's role as African gatekeeper for the
> European Union. Their outrage is targeted in the main, not against the
> immigration policies of the government, but the criminal layers
> spawned by such policies who traffic in human misery by running the
> pateras.
>
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --
>
> Copyright 1998-99
> World Socialist Web Site
> All rights reserved
>
>
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