MADRID: The human rights of immigrants in the European Union are in danger, in light of recent statements by several of the bloc’s leaders and moves to reform the related legislation, says Mustafa Mrabet, president of the Association of Moroccan Immigrant Workers in Spain.

Immigration policy will be one of the main issues that the heads of state and government of the 15 EU countries will take up at the summit to be held Jun 21-22 in the southwestern Spanish city of Seville.

Spain’s centre-right Prime Minister Josi Marma Aznar, who currently holds the six-month rotating EU presidency, has said that measures must be reinforced to fight irregular immigration, without turning the bloc into a fort, but preventing it from becoming a sieve.

Mariano Rajoy, Spanish minister of Interior and current chair of the European council of such ministers, stated Thursday that immigration reforms will be approved by the bloc this year.

Among the changes to be made, he mentioned requiring visas for citizens of countries that have been able to enter the bloc without such documentation, setting up common EU consular offices and streamlining expulsion procedures.

The minister said he believes it is essential for immigrants to learn the language of the destination country.

He also advocates police cooperation among the 15 EU countries and including the European Police (Europol) in efforts to control irregular immigration.

Immigrant activist Mrabet told IPS that the proposed reforms will undermine the rights of those who already hold legal resident status, and not just those who enter the EU in the future in search of work, with or without a visa.

Given the announced modifications, immigrants who are legal residents will see their right to family reunification jeopardised, even though this right is recognised by the Spanish and other constitutions, Mrabet said.

One of the changes in immigration laws that Spain is promoting would annul the right to obtain legal residency of those who can prove that they have been in the country at least five years.

Although that reform refers only to Spain, the fact that officials are discussing changes for the entire EU and the statements by Aznar and Rajoy give immigrant rights defenders reason to fear that the matter will be decided at a bloc-wide level, and potentially undo other achievements that benefit immigrants.

Mrabet commented that the move to not grant residency to those who have been in Spain or another European country for five years illegally is odd, because one can count the number of irregular immigrants who have been here five years one hand.

Living in Spain without proper documents means working under the most uncertain conditions, separated from one’s family and running the daily risk of arrest and expulsion, said the activist, pointing out that very few can withstand that situation for so many years.

What is the Spanish government’s intent in seeking to facilitate expulsion of immigrants if the authorities already expel the Moroccans with wet clothes from the Strait of Gibraltar and those from other countries, too? wonders Mrabet.——Dawn/ InterPress News Service.