MADRID: “There’s no work here for Arabs,” a 24-year old Moroccan was told by a building firm after arriving in Madrid with a work permit issued in Rabat.

Life in Spain is hard for Moroccan immigrants but it could become more precarious now that Spain and Morocco are at loggerheads over a tiny island off the North African coast.

Moroccan soldiers raised a flag and set up tents on the disputed Perejil island last week, worsening relations with Madrid that were already strained over illegal immigration, fishing rights and drug trafficking.

Moroccans in Madrid knew little about the dispute and said the occupation of Perejil — or Leila in Arabic — had changed nothing in Spain where they said they were often prevented from getting jobs by racist attitudes.

If Morocco refuses to withdraw its troops, sources familiar with the situation said Spain may suspend a 1991 bilateral cooperation treaty. It could then impose commercial sanctions in coordination with the European Union and tighten requirements for Moroccans entering Spain.

That could have an impact because some 200,000 Moroccans live in Spain and a further 1.5 million pass through regularly every summer from other European countries.

Rabat insists it set up an “observation post” on Perejil to tackle illegal migration and terrorism in the 20 kms Straits of Gibraltar separating Spain from North Africa.

The 24-year-old Moroccan interviewed in Madrid has spent the last four months dividing his days between looking for work and selling clothes on the street, keeping half an eye out for police who impound street vendors’ stock if they catch them.

“I’m looking for work. I hate selling on the street, you run the risk of the police...It’s difficult (to get work) in Spain. The people are racist. They don’t like Arabs,” said the man, who was trained in Morocco as a builder.

Abderrachid Bakkali, a 20-year-old electrician who came to Spain stowed away in the engine compartment of a bus from Tangiers, said he had been looking for work for two years in the Basque city of Bilbao before coming to Madrid two weeks ago.

“Spaniards are racist towards Moroccans but then Moroccans rob,” Bakkali said, adding that he was prepared to do any job.

Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said in his annual state of the nation address on Monday that some illegal immigrants committed a “very significant number” of crimes and suggested a policy of expelling those who committed offences which carried a sentence of less than six years.

Mustapha Elmerabet, president of Spain’s Association of Moroccan Workers, said prejudice between communities was common. “With Spanish-Moroccan relations there are many cliches, many prejudices, and a lot of recent and less recent history.”

Many Moroccans said they were just waiting to get papers that would allow them to work in Spain and then go home, returning when money runs out.

“We’re waiting for papers. The idea is to work here and then go back to Morocco, to our families and then come back here to work,” said 22-year-old Tarik Isnabla, who worked as a strawberry picker in southern Spain before moving to the capital.

Every summer hundreds of thousands of Moroccans catch ferries back home. Last weekend the number of passengers who had crossed to North Africa since June 15 reached 466,198, with the great majority heading for Morocco.

Remittances sent home by Moroccans abroad are a key source of foreign exchange for the North African country, soaring almost 60 per cent last year to more than $3 billion.—Reuters