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Last Updated: Thursday, 12 August, 2004, 09:49 GMT 10:49 UK

Madrid victims granted residency

The bombs were placed on commuter trains from the Madrid suburbs
The Spanish government has given residence permits to nearly 700 immigrants
who were either victims or related to victims of the Madrid bombs.

The explosions on four Madrid commuter trains on 11 March left 191 dead and
hundreds more injured.

Police said more than 2,000 other immigrants in Spain had made residence
applications, on grounds that they had been directly affected by the
attacks.

The government decided to grant permits to victims as an act of solidarity.

Following the attacks, Spanish MPs agreed that the attacks “resulted in a
huge human catastrophe, without consideration for nationality or origin”.

They agreed these were exceptional circumstances and that granting residency
to immigrants involved would help the victims and “ease their settlement” in
Spain.

Of the 673 residence permits granted to date, 355 were obtained by victims
and 318 by their relatives. Hundreds of other applications are still being
considered.

A large number of Latin Americans were among the victims of the bombings,
but people of many other nationalities were also involved.

Official figures show permits were granted to 264 Romanians, 179
Ecuadorians, 70 Colombians, 28 Moroccans, 19 Bolivians, 15 Argentinians, 19
Bulgarians, eight Cubans, six Brazilians, five Paraguayans, 13 Peruvians, 12
Poles, 18 Ukrainians and three Venezuelans, two from Cape Verde, two
Moldavians, two Chileans, one Congolese, one American, one Honduran, one
Armenian, one Nigerian, one Dominican, one Senegalese and one Malian.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress