MANIFESTO FOR THE UNCONDITIONAL REGULARISATION OF
IMMIGRANTS

In Spain more than 50% of immigrants have no legal
papers. We are the visible tip of an iceberg of life’s
precariousness affecting everyone equally .

In order to fight against this situation, we went out
to the streets, we recognised our equals, we built a
platform for struggle, we listened to other people’s
struggles at the Popular Assembly, we claimed a direct
dialogue with the Administration, we banged our pans
prior to elections, we received from Zapatero promises
which affected us directly, we attended an interview
with the renewed Generalitat de Cataluña... Yet, the
Generalitat still treats us like “a problem” and takes
back, together with Central Government, the campaign
promises and press announcements. We have knocked on
all doors. Faced with silence and denial of our
fundamental rights, for citizenship is achieved
through the very exercising of itself...

IF NECESSARY, WE SHALL LOCK OURSELVES UP!

The Assembly for the Unconditional Regularisation
brings together different immigrant communities,
organisations and citizens. Its aim is to fight for
full access to full rights (civil, financial, social
and political) and duties for immigrants in Spain.

WE DEMAND:

- A regularisation process for all the people living
in Spain
- That no one is deprived of their rights because of
Administration’s inefficiency
- The cancellation of deportation orders not carried
out and the end of all deportations
- An end to Police assault
- Closing down of all detention centres
- Repeal of the Immigration Law (Ley de Extranjería)
- A change in immigration policies.

1- A regularisation process for all the people living
in Spain.
In Spain there are around one million illegal
immigrants, unprotected, with no rights and in a legal
apartheid. It is a humanly intolerable and
unacceptable situation for a so-called democratic
State. The new PSOE government is talking about an
apparent and confused individual regularisation for
immigrants with job opportunities, and has discarded
any extraordinary regularisation process. The majority
of immigrants do not have a job. Women and children
are victims of a double inequality. In conclusion, the
regularisation process of those with job opportunities
does not solve any problems; what is needed is a
general regularisation with no conditions. Children,
women and disabled people are being exploited by the
mafias in the depths of the parallel economy.

2- An end to sudden irregularity: people ‘with papers’
who, due to the Administration’s fault, become
‘paperless’ or illegal. The delay in processing
papers, the bureaucratic barriers and the excessive
expenditures inherent to the processing of papers,
derive in lack of identity papers, traumatic living
conditions, suffering and fear. The Immigration
Ministry has more than 43,000 unanswered e-mails and
53,000 applications for the renewal of residence visas
waiting to be processed. A lot of people have lost job
opportunities, have not been able to travel abroad or
have had trouble with police. More than 20,000 people
have already lost their residence and working permits,
or are about to, according to the Sub Secretary of
Barcelona’s Council. This number goes up by the day,
because there are more applications coming in than
there are being resolved.

3- The cancellation of deportation orders not carried
out and the end of all deportations.
The Interior Ministry opens deportation files to
people arbitrarily detained on the street. By law,
these people will never be able to be regularised.
This results in thousands of people being made
homeless, without a chance of getting a job, renting a
home, etc.

4- An end to Police assault.
Constant control, assault and detention carried out by
Police provokes a day to day fear and a continuous
sense of persecution. Also, a public image of
immigration is portrayed as one linked to criminality
and terrorism.

5- Closing down of all detention centres.
Immigrants with a deportation order, which is not a
crime but rather an administrative error, are kept in
deplorable conditions. Many of the detention centres
are located in buildings which originally functioned
as prisons, but which now hold different legal
considerations. The special spokeswoman for the UN
recently informed that these centres are too full and
that once there, immigrants do not count with any sort
of judicial or consular protection, nor do they have
appropriate legal defence, nor interpreters, nor
information regarding necessary requirements for the
regularisation of their situation.

6- Repeal of Immigration Law
The Immigration Law institutionalises inequality and
establishes a ‘cast’ system in a serious legal
apartheid, namely, nationals and members of the EU,
with full rights; the ‘regular’ outsiders of the EU,
with very restricted rights; and the ‘paperless’ or
illegal immigrants, with no rights at all, legally
inexistent. The Immigration Law considers foreigners
as ‘goods’: their ‘welcome’ is authorised based on
exclusively productive criteria.
This supposes the infringement of the fundamental
principles of Human and Constitutional rights.
Distinctions are made based on race, origin and social
condition. It is not surprising that more than a
hundred groups, including some political parties,
have asked the Peoples’ Defender to lodge an inquiry
for unconstitutionality. Even the Basque Parliament
has done so. The last reform, agreed between the PP
and the PSOE, is the reflection of how political power
understands the immigration phenomenon and the case
that almost one million people are considered
‘illegal’.

7- A new model of immigration policies.
We denounce the model of immigration policies
developed to present, restricted to one law and
applying it in the harshest possible manner, not
paying attention to the rest of the issues: social
welfare, working conditions, integration and
intercultural dialogue. We demand that every
individual has a guarantee of his full rights (civil,
political and social) and conditions of duties equal
to those of nationals’, including the right to vote.
We demand that the right to immigrate is acknowledged,
and that to carry it out in Spain ceases to suppose a
trauma and an attempt against people’s dignity. We
ask for the abolition of the racist Shengen Treaty,
freedom of circulation and residency for everyone, the
acknowledgement of universal citizenship for everyone
and the respect of an authentic right of asylum in all
countries.

In the face of this desperate situation, this Assembly
considers that all options are valid, including
lockup.

ASSEMBLY FOR THE UNCONDITIONAL REGULARISATION
Barcelona, May 2004.