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FOREIGNERS’ INJUSTICE

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Sally Bengtsson / 2009-06-28 12:51:04

Being European citizens, most of us obtain our residencia certificates automatically, giving us the right to go in and out of Spain as we please, work, and receive medical treatment.  There are others who weren’t fortunate enough to have been born in Europe, but who have chosen Spain to live and work.

Up until recently Spain was crying out for workers to harvest the fields, lay bricks and work in restaurants.  Now that unemployment is sky high these foreigners are being forced to leave, and Spaniards are having to do jobs that previously they would never have considered. 

However, there are foreign immigrants who wish to stay here, who have made a life in Spain, who work in jobs that only they can do, and whose only desire is to become a legal immigrant so they feel like a citizen with rights. 

The Leader was contacted by Ken Bhatt, who is a British citizen of Indian origin.  Ken belongs to the Indian Association in Spain, which is in the process of forming a group in Torrevieja, where there is a huge Indian community.  Many of these Indian citizens have been working in Spain for years, applying for residencia, and each year the immigration authorities make the application a little harder. 

The latest demand is that they acquire a clearance certificate from the national Indian police force.  This is harder than it sounds.  There is no national Indian police force; each of the 120 Indian states has its own state police force.  “We can obtain a police clearance check from the state we are from, which is what we have always done in the past, and what has always been accepted.  But Spain is asking us to go to each individual state to get a clearance certificate from each one. 

This would take years and an almost impossible task.  Spain is only just now forming a national police data base, yet they are asking us to provide something that even they cannot provide at present”, says Ken frustratedly.  What is evident is the massive feeling of injustice. 

As he says, “Almost all the Indian immigrants contribute to the national economy, they are a non-violent race, they learn Spanish immediately, pay their taxes, obey the rules and regulations, are humble workers, yet they are being treated in this way.  None come over without a job contract.  It’s not even as if we are taking the work away from the Spaniards,” comments Ken, who owns a popular Indian Restaurant in Los Balcones, and also has a printing business. 

Latin Americans are treated in a similar way.  Recently a Bolivian lost his arm while working in a bakery.  It was only after such a tragedy that he was granted permission to live and work here. 

It is a shame that now that pickings are scarce immigrants are being treated like a throwaway commodity.  Many feel they were used to build up the country and now can be disposed of. 

Tags: Immigration, Torrevieja, Indian Association In Spain