LEAD: Spain denies Amnesty's accusations of discrimination

Dec 14, 2011, 17:02 GMT

London/Madrid - Spain on Wednesday denied accusations by the human rights group Amnesty International (AI) that Spanish police routinely carry out identity checks based on ethnic or racial criteria.

'There are no selective checks,' Interior Ministry sources told dpa.

The sources also denied AI allegations that some Madrid police stations had been given weekly and monthly quotas for the number of undocumented immigrants they had to detain.

Deliberate identity checks on foreigners in the absence of any security concern are widespread, according to an AI report published in London on Wednesday.

'People who do not look Spanish can be stopped by police as often as four times a day,' any time and anywhere, said Izza Leghtas, AI researcher on Spain.

'The Spanish authorities are using stop and search powers abusively as a way to control migration,' Leghtas said.

'Spain has the right to control migration, however that should not be at the expense of the rights of migrants and minorities to equality and protection from discrimination,' the researcher added.

Already in 2009, then interior minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba commented on reports that police had been given quotas to arrest immigrants. Such practices had been 'categorically prohibited' and would not happen 'ever again,' Rubalcaba said.

'The issue with migrants is very serious in a number of countries, such as Italy, Greece and Cyprus,' an AI spokeswoman told dpa from London over the phone.

'However, the discrimination does not necessarily express itself in the same way' as in Spain, she added.