Madrid - The Spanish government on Friday approved plans to tighten the conditions for immigration, lengthening the maximum detention of undocumented migrants from 40 to 70 days.

The planned law will also make it more difficult for immigrants to bring family members to Spain, allowing them to bring parents only if they have lived in Spain for at least five years and if the parents are more than 65 years old.

The law will also grant more rights to undocumented immigrants, such as the right to form associations and to stage demonstrations, and the right to education for minors.

People employing undocumented immigrants or marrying them only to allow them to legalize their situation will face fines of up to 100,000 euros (140,000 dollars).

In another reform which is already under way, the government is also offering to pay unemployment entitlements in a lump sum to immigrants willing to return home.

Spain's rising unemployment has affected especially immigrants, many of whom work in the construction and service sectors that have lost hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Most of Spain's 5 million official immigrants are from Morocco, Latin America and Eastern Europe. (dpa)