Parlementsleden roepen op tot steun aan Spanje bij illegalenprobleem (en)

A group of MEPs on Monday (4 September) voted in favour of a report calling on the European Commission and the 25 EU member states to take "concrete action" to help Spain curb the waves of illegal immigrants arriving to the Canary Islands.

The parliament's civil liberties, justice and home affairs committee unanimously approved the report written by three MEPs who visited the islands in June.

"The sheer scale of those willing to put their lives at risk in attempting to cross to the Canaries highlights the urgency of finding a more comprehensive solution, addressing the root causes of migration," UK green MEP and co-author Jean Lambert said in a statement.

"EU response has been disappointingly focused on bolstering the defences," she said adding that border controls in specific locations only changes the shape of migration flows.

"The fundamental problem is why people are leaving their home countries and taking such massive risks."

More than 20,000 people have made the perilous crossing to the Canary Islands this year alone, with August arrivals accounting for more than the whole of 2005 and more than 1,500 arriving last weekend.

No one knows exactly how many have perished at sea but Spanish immigration official Froilan Rodriguez told Spanish daily El Pais last week that 490 drowned immigrants have been found this year along African and Spanish coasts.

However, Italian NGO Fortress Europe says the number is 612 for the same period so far. The group also says that more than 800 migrants have died this year trying to reach Europe in the Mediterranean and Atlantic seas while countless are missing.

"Any immigration policy that fails to put development at its core is missing the point. We need to give the poor more legal opportunities to work in the EU, as well as developing the local economy in their country of origin," Mrs Lambert said.

The report will be put to vote before the whole plenary later this autumn.