Spain: Conditions getting tougher for immigrants

Immigrants in Spain are getting a raw deal from state institutions and at the same time from small and medium business owners, who not only take unfair advantage of them, but sometimes also physically ill-treat them. The government has toughened its laws on immigration, and foreigners continue to be harassed by the police. "They badger us at the subway exits and doorways to telephone booths, restaurants or discos, demanding documents and detaining people who aren't carrying them," said Irma Pérez, the head of the Federation of Associations of Paraguayans in Spain (FAPRE). Pérez led representatives of four associations that lodged a complaint of police harassment with the justice system this week. Interior Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba denied there were any such practices. Immigrants also suffer at the hands of their employers, some of whom treat them in inhuman fashion. For example, on Jul. 25 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, Luis Beltrán Larrosa, an Uruguayan worker without a residence permit, had a heart attack and collapsed, whereupon his employer dragged him out into the street and left him there on the ground