Latin America urges EU to avoid discrimination against immigrants

Latin America warns about immigration at EU summit

MADRID — Argentina’s president urged the EU on Tuesday not to discriminate against immigrants from Latin America, saying it was easy to make them scapegoats during times of crisis.

Cristina Fernandez Kirchner’s comments marked a somewhat discordant note at the opening of a summit between the European Union and countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Kirchner said wealthy European countries often treat immigrants as “the enemy.”

She noted that Argentina had a history of welcoming people from Europe during hard times.

An EU directive approved in 2008 allows member states to hold undocumented foreigners for as long as 18 months, and Latin American governments were among the most outspoken in criticizing it.

“I humbly ask, avoid sanctions and discriminatory laws against immigration because in times of economic crisis, societies tend to seek out people to blame for their problems,” Kirchner said.

She also urged Britain’s new coalition government to negotiate with Argentina on the status of the Falklands Islands, the South Atlantic archipelago over which the two countries fought a brief but costly war in 1982. Britain promptly rebuffed the request, saying holding such talks would depend on the will of the Falkanders themselves.

The two-day summit has been watered down with no shows. For varying domestic reasons, the leaders of Britain, Italy and Germany were absent Wednesday.

So was Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who often is a lively and outspoken figure at this kind of meeting. He said he was staying away to protest the presence of Honduras’ president Porfirio Lobo, elected after the ouster of Manuel Zelaya and still not recognized by many Latin American governments.

Cuban President Raul Castro is not attending either.