July 30, 2010  Print Email | Amnesty International urges Spain to fight racism
Racial criteria deciding immigrants' identity checks
Posted by Agencies at 11:08 AM GMT on Mar 21, 2009 | MADRID (AFP): Human rights watchdog Amnesty International today called on the Spanish government to ban what it said was the use of racial criteria, by the police, in deciding identity checks of illegal immigrants.
As part of the World Day Against Racism, the AI's Spanish section called for an end to "any orders or instructions" that exist establishing quotas for the detention of illegal immigrants by police stations.
 It said such practices are "criminalising immigrants just for being what they are."
Any government measures to fight racial discrimination in past years have been "insufficient," Amnesty said.
The Amnesty appeal comes after some 200 unions and immigrant associations on Tuesday filed a complaint against Spain's interior ministry for what they say has been a rise in police operations targeting undocumented foreigners.
Spanish media reported last month that Madrid police officers are complaining they are under pressure from their superiors to arrest a "quota" of illegal immigrants every week.
Spain's Socialist government has denied that such quotas exist. But after granting an amnesty for over 500,000 illegal immigrants in 2005, it began tightening entry rules for immigrants last year as the economy cooled.
The number of immigrants in Spain shot up from 500,000 people in 1996 to 5.2 million currently, mainly from Latin America, eastern Europe and north Africa, out of a total population of 46 million.
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