Spanish police in a Madrid neighbourhood have been set targets for arresting illegal immigrants and told to concentrate on Moroccans, according to media reports that have angered migrant groups.
The reports came as Spain's Socialist government tries to drastically cut immigration due to rocketing unemployment, in an about-face on what was the most open immigration policy of any large European country.
"This isn't worthy of a country governed by the rule of law. The police can't issue quotas for arresting Moroccans," said Kamal Rahmouni, president of the Association of Moroccan Immigrant Workers.
This would lead to people being harassed because of their physical appearance, he said.
Spain's National Police confirmed the existence of orders setting out objectives for the arrest of foreigners.
"These guidelines are established according to the population and crime rate of each district, in strict compliance with immigration laws obliging the police to sanction illegal immigrants," the police force said in a statement.
Spanish television showed what it said was an internal police document instructing officers in Madrid's working class Vallecas district to detain at least 35 foreigners without visas every month.
An Interior Minister statement backed the use of quotas in police work, but said they should only be used in specific operations targetting criminal activity.
"On the rights and freedoms of foreigners in Spain and their social integration, police operating plans will only set qualitative goals," the statement said, without referring directly to the reported document.
Moroccans were the priority, according to the document which was also quoted by newspapers on Monday, because they can be expelled from Spain cheaply and are accepted by their home government with a minimum of fuss.
Illegal migrants caught in Vallecas are transferred to a migrant detention centre, which is currently under investigation by a public prosecutor following allegations of physical abuse by staff.
Even in deep recession, Spain remains attractive to migrants from the much poorer countries to the south. On Monday, Coast Guards in the Canary Islands said they recovered the bodies of 18 North Africans, including several children, who drowned in sight of bathers as they attempted to enter Spain illegally.
About five million foreigners have arrived in Spain since the early 1990s, providing the labour for a construction and services boom which has now collapsed and transforming a society which was until recently inward-looking and conservative.
Now the government wants to pay unemployed immigrants to return home. It has also slashed the number of working visas and wants to limit family reunification visas.
An opinion poll by the government-funded Centro de Investigaciones Sociologicas last month showed that 19 per cent of Spaniards identified immigration as one of Spain's three biggest problems.