Immigrants end hunger strike while their fate is determined

About 700 immigrants ended a 14-day hunger strike in Barcelona today after authorities agreed to review 34,000 cases of illegal workers denied visas before a tough immigration law came into effect last month.

According to the agreement reached between the immigrants and government officials, “the current legislation will provide a favorable solution to the majority of applicants previously rejected in the process.”

The new immigration measures, which have been blasted by opposition politicians, are designed to curb the record numbers of immigrants entering Spain.

The law stipulates new conditions for admitting foreign nationals, some based on their skills and willingness to work in places where labor is in shortest supply.

It denies immigrants the right to demonstrate, belong to a trade union or strike and also permits authorities to expel those without correct papers within 48 to 72 hours.

Protests flared when the legislation took effect last month and some 700 immigrants from Asia, Latin America and sub-Saharan countries began a hunger strike, taking refuge in a church in downtown Barcelona.

The biggest protest took place in Santa Maria del Pi church in Barcelona’s Gothic district and involved some 500 immigrants.

For the moment, the protestors have agreed to abandon the hunger strike but will continue their occupations of several churches in downtown Barcelona.

Left-wing opposition politicians and advocates of immigrant rights have attacked the new legislation sponsored by the conservative government.

"This is a law against workers who do not live, they barely survive," Diego Lopez Garrido, member of the left-wing Nueva Izquierda party, recently wrote in El País.

"It's a law that revives the divide between those who are free and those who are slaves," he added.

Interior Minister Jaime Mayor Oreja rejected the criticism.

"They (critics) do not have a police-like vision," he said, adding the new law was intended to facilitate the process by which illegal immigrants can get their papers.

The government says the measures aim to control rather than stop immigration altogether. With the world's lowest birthrate, economists say Spain, with 40 million inhabitants, needs to import more labor.

There has been growing debate in Spain on how social security coffers will be filled without the help of immigrant labor.

Mayor Oreja said his government was uncertain about how many illegal immigrants were in Spain, rejecting a figure of 150,000 mentioned by the media.

Spain has about one million legal immigrants, most coming from Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Most of the immigrants work in agriculture, construction, and greenhouses.

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