Immigration Laws: August, 1998 - Number #13

Spain is expected to complete building a $35 million, 10-foot high fence around its North African enclave city, Melilla, by the end of 1998, and a similar fence around the city of Ceuta. The fences are two rows of high wire barricades equipped with security cameras and fiber-optic sensors, with a road running between them for police patrols. Most of the funding for the fences has come from the European Union.

Spain has six miles of border with Morocco around the cities of Melilla and Ceuta, and Morocco refuses to accept the return of non-Moroccan migrants deported from Ceuta and Melilla. In 1997, more than 16,0000 mainly north and sub-Saharan African immigrants were detained in Ceuta and Mellilla. Some thought that the fences would not prevent illegal immigration because Moroccans from the surrounding province of Tetouan - as a special exception to the Schengen treaty - can enter Ceuta for the day without a visa.

In mid-July, 18 Moroccans drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean to enter Spain. It is estimated that 2,000 and 5,000 people cross the straits of Gibraltar every year, mostly from Morocco, although most of the boats and engines are bought in Ceuta. Some Moroccans work on Spanish fishing boats, and slip into Spain when the fish are delivered. Others pay the local mafias up to L1,600 ($2500) for a place on a boat, making smuggling a highly lucrative business that is far less risky than drug smuggling; smuggling people brings a fine, while smuggling drugs often leads to a prison sentence. About 200 would-be immigrants drowned in the Mediterranean in 1997.

Most foreigners from sub-Saharan countries do not have the money to pay for passage by boat to Spain. They usually apply for asylum in Ceuta and Mellilla, and Morocco refuses to accept their return. Some sub-Saharan Africans report that they did not think of migrating to Europe until they met up with other Africans wandering around Algeria and Morocco who told them about Ceuta and Melilla.

At Madrid Airport, police detained in 1997 almost 3,300 illegal immigrants, most from Latin America, 27 percent more than in 1996.

Justin Webster, "Fortress Europe gets [[sterling]]22 million anti-immigrant fence," Telegraph, July 26, 1998. Sinikka Tarvainen and Hildegard Huelsenbeck, "Immigrants risk their lives to cross "Europe's Rio Grande," Deutsche Presse-Agentur, July 18, 1998.