- Title: SPAIN: GANGS TARGET MORROCAN IMMIGRANTS WORKING IN FARMING
- Date: 22nd August 2005
- Summary: (MER1) EL EJIDO, SPAIN (RECENT) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF EL EJIDO TOWN SURROUNDED BY PLASTIC GREENHOUSES FOR GROWING VEGETABLES 0.15 2. PAN DOWN SPANISH FLAG/ MAIN STREET IN EL EJIDO TOWN WITH SPANISH AND IMMIGRANTS WALKING IN THE STREET 0.22 3. VARIOUS OF MOROCCAN AND AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS TALKING TO EACH OTHER ON THE MAIN STREET OF EL EJIDO T
- Embargoed: 6th September 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: EL EJIDO, ALMERIA, ALMERIMAR, SPAIN
- Country: Spain
- Reuters ID: LVA6RBSNKKALQ1BZRVX2VQQ5P659
- Story Text: Gangs target Moroccan immigrants working in Spain's agriculture
industry.
In the Andalusian town of El Ejido, southern Spain, a billion-dollar
agriculture industry depends on the cheap manual labour of immigrants. The
industry, comprised mainly of greenhouse crops, is run by Moroccan immigrants,
many of them employed illegally. Because of low wages and lack of labour
rights many are forced to live in shacks. They claim that the local population
and authorities are denying them their rights.
El Ejido is a town in the province of Almeria and is one that best
represents the "Almeria miracle," so-called because of the
incredible growth the province has witnessed over the last 30 years. In the
mid-1970s, the coast of Almeria was one of the poorest areas in southern
Spain; thanks to intensive vegetable cultivation, it is now one of the
richest.
The high-intensive agriculture industry was started fifteen years ago
and is made up of greenhouses covered with sheets of blue and white plastic
that cover an area of 17,000 hectares of land. The greenhouses grow peppers,
tomatoes and cucumbers.
In El Ejido there are around 5,000 immigrants with work permits, but at
least another 10,000 who work illegally. In the whole of AlmerÃa there are
27,000 legal immigrants and about as many illegal ones. The immigrant workers,
who earn just 20 euros a day for back breaking work supply most of Western
Europe with fruit and vegetables.
But for a great number of the inhabitants of El Ejido, coexistence with
the Moroccan immigrants is a continuous source of mistrust and discontent. The
immigrants are regularly met with racial discrimination in public. North
African workers claim they are unwelcome in many bars and cafes, and are
routinely refused service.
Since August 2003 about fifteen migrants have so far been the victims
of brutal racist attacks. The attacks are usually carried out by men driving
around at night and armed with baseball bats and iron bars. The perpetrators
of the attacks have been known to follow immigrant workers home when they
finish work and assault them. All of the victims of the attacks are from
Morocco or sub-Saharan Africa and all work in El Ejido.
In February 2005, a 40 year-old Moroccan worker, Azzouz Hosni, was
killed in El Ejido by a group of Spaniards who attacked him in front of a bar.
Forty-three year-old Mohammed Tourabi, a Moroccan immigrant and
agriculture worker, who in July 2004 lost his leg after he was attacked by a
group of 20 Spaniards says he faced indifference from the authorities
following his ordeal. The perpetrators of the attack have also never been
identified.
"If I knew Spain was like that, I would never have come here
Here there are no rights. I have lost my leg, I have no home, I live in an
unbearable place, I have no money at all, they (the Spanish authorities) don't
give you any aid to survive. How could anyone survive in this way? Death is a
better solution in this case. It's (feels) like someone dying little by
little," Mohammed Tourabi told Reuters.
Like many Moroccan and African immigrants in Spain, Mohammed Tourabi, a
native of Casablanca came to spain on a patera, a small raft used to sail over
the strait of Gibraltar. More than half of the passengers on the patera who
crossed the sea with Mohammed drowned on the journey.
Today, for Mohammed, the Spanish "miracle" has turned into a
nightmare. With no social aid except some health care from the Red Cross,
Mohammed is living in a metal shack which has been converted into a house for
him by the Red Cross. Before his leg amputation, Mohammed used to work in the
greenhouses for 20 euros a day, today he is surviving with the help of the Red
Cross and other Moroccans.
ATIME, the Moroccan immigrants' group, estimates that of the 27,000
Moroccans in Almeria, the province that includes El Ejido, as many as 22,000
live in shacks - some without water and light.
Laaroussi Elmorabiti, a counsellor at the Andalusian Syndicate of
Agriculture Workers said: "the municipality of El Ejido has received
financial aid from the European Union in order to sort out the lack of housing
for the immigrants. This aid should have been received by those facing housing
problems so that they can have a decent way of life as all people in European
countries. But for the moment no one has seen this aid."
"We are living in a deep misery and (are) forgotten by everybody,
as you can see. We were told that Spain was a country of prosperity, and we
never thought that it could be like this. The Spanish people hate us, they
insult us and attack us when they are in groups. They (the Spanish) are
insulting us all the time," said another Moroccan immigrant who refused
to give his name.
Immigrants in El Ejido say they are generally pessimistic about the
future, and see a lack of will for integration.
Between 500,000 and 800,000 illegal immigrants live in Spain, according
to estimates from Spain's General Workers' Union (UGT).
In February 2000 in El Ejido, race riots broke out between Moroccans
and Spaniards, and isolated incidents of race-related violence have occurred
ever since.
Spain, traditionally a country of emigrants, has only in the
last decade or so received immigrants in large numbers.
Economists say immigration is good for the economy: it counters an
ageing population, brings down wages in an economy with inflation running
above the euro zone average and supplies labour to the booming agriculture
sector.
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