Frattini fumes as states offer amnesty to illegal immigrants

The EU's ambition to achieve a common policy on immigration has been undermined by four of the largest member states signalling their readiness to regularise the status of illegal immigrants.

Italy has announced that it will increase its quota for workers from outside the EU by 350,000 from an initial 170,000 quota set at the start of the year. The Italian interior ministry described the move as a way of dealing with the previous government's poor record on illegal labour. "These 350,000 people are already in Italy and the situation was inherited from the previous government which condemned 'black labour'," said Paolo Ferrero, the minister for social welfare.

One Italian official confirmed: "In principle, this is not regularisation but it may involve [illegal] people already here."

The European Commission has voiced its opposition to the move. "I am asking the Interior Minister Giuliano Amato to examine one-by-one the 350,000 requests for regularisation from immigrant workers," Franco Frattini, justice, freedom and security commissioner said this week.

"Checks are needed to determine if these are fictitious demands or if they effectively correspond to a work offer and lodging. Otherwise, European Union sanctions are envisaged," he added.

A member of Frattini's private office confirmed that the threat of sanctions referred to penalties against businesses which employ illegal workers, a measure that the Commission hopes to introduce in the autumn. The EU has no powers to sanction member states that wish to regularise illegal immigrants.

The German government has said that it wished to regularise the status of people who have been living illegally in the country for long periods, estimated to number 150,000-200,000. "The most important and most difficult thing is to find a sensible solution for these so-called old cases," Wolfgang SchŠuble, Germany's interior minister, said in an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung. "Everyone can see that you can't just deport to any old place children who were born here, went to school here and have good exam results," he added.

The French government has said that it will give papers to 6,000 people who have been living in France for a long period without official status, out of an expected 20,000 applications. An official said that those granted official status might include people who came to France legally but overstayed their visas and who now have ties to France and children in school. But in a typically tough stance the French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said that he would deport those whose applications had been turned down.

The European Commission is publicly opposed to amnesties for illegal immigrants as it believes they encourage immigrants to make often-dangerous journeys to the EU in the hope that they too will eventually be allowed to remain.

Spain last year allowed an amnesty for 700,000 illegal immigrants and EU officials believe that this has contributed to the flow of thousands of immigrants who have arrived on the Canary Islands since the start of the year. Many make the journey from the west African coast in fishing boats, some dying en route. On 2 August, 28 people were found dead in two boats which washed up on the shores close to the town of Blibilat in the province of El Aaiœn, Western Sahara.

Last year, thousands of immigrants attempted to gain entry to Spain by travelling to the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla near Morocco but tighter controls by the Moroccan authorities have reduced the flow on this route. Malta and Italy have also seen an increase in immigrants heading their way in boats. Teams headed by the EU's border agency Frontex are to help identify immigrants on the ground and carry out air and sea surveillance.

This week, Frattini announced that a Frontex team would travel to Italy to assess the needs there after the interior ministry requested help to deal with large numbers of immigrants arriving in Sicily.

The EU's ambition to achieve a common policy on immigration has been undermined by four of the largest member states signalling their readiness to regularise the status of illegal immigrants.

• Primary Source