FOR the families of the unfortunate few who came to Spain seeking a more prosperous life and died in Thursday’s bombs there will be some small, if bitterly belated, consolation.

José María Aznar, Spain’s Prime Minister, announced yesterday that the illegal immigrants who perished in the attacks would be given Spanish nationality posthumously. It will also be granted to their immediate families. The gesture of solidarity was prompted by the certain knowledge that immigrants living in the less prosperous outskirts of Madrid were on the trains of death.

Señor Aznar revealed that of the 117 victims who had been positively identified by yesterday morning, 14 were from other countries.

The identified dead included a Chilean, a Cuban, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, another from Guinea Bissau, two Hondurans, two Poles, a French citizen, a Moroccan and a Colombian. Two Romanian women, aged 26 and 34, were killed and 76 Romanians were injured in the train bombings, Spanish officials said.

Marian Sarbu, Romania’s Social Affairs Minister who flew to Spain yesterday, said that five Romanians were still missing.

Spain has witnessed a dramatic surge in immigration in the past five years and, if it continues at the present rate, foreigners will comprise one in five of the population by 2020, according to census predictions.

With a falling population due to its low birthrate, Spain is actively encouraging controlled immigration from Latin American countries, believing that their people make ideal future citizens thanks to a shared language, religion and culture.

“We will grant Spanish nationality to all the victims and their immediate families,” the Prime Minister told a press conference.

He said that the Government had established an emergency fund of €140 million (£95 million) to meet the immediate needs of victims and their families. In Madrid last night 408 victims remained in hospital, 38 of them in an extremely serious condition and 21 gravely ill. Of the 1,463 injured, 576 were well enough to go home.

Two Britons — a man and a woman, both unnamed — were injured, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said. They were still in hospital, but their injuries were not serious.

Among those in the Gregorio Marañón hospital, which has had to cope with most of the victims, were three pregnant women, two of them in intensive care.

Their unborn babies were all said to be safe and healthy. Appeals were made for help in identifying a woman in intensive care. She is described as being aged between 30 and 40, 5ft 7in with short reddish-brown hair. She has a ring on her right ring finger, signifying in Spain that she is married, and has a scar on her abdomen, presumably from the removal of her appendix. By last night nobody had come forward to identify her.

Fernando Olivera, Peru’s Ambassador, who helped to tend victims, said: “Three of our compatriots are dead. They have left widows and children. This is our share of the blood and the anguish.”

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