Madrid - The Spanish government Friday adopted measures aimed at encouraging jobless immigrants to return home amid a deepening economic crisis.

Migrants who leave Spain will be paid their entire unemployment benefit in two parts, 40 per cent in Spain and 60 per cent in the home country, Labour Minister Celestino Corbacho said.

The migrants will not lose rights gained in Spain earlier on, the minister added.

Spain's unemployment of around 10 per cent affects especially the construction sector, which employs many migrants. Spain now has an estimated 165,000 unemployed immigrants from outside the European Union. Most of them come from Morocco and Ecuador.

The government has said it expects 10,000 migrants to take advantage of the offer to return home, down from an initial forecast of a million.

Immigrants' associations have accused Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government of excessively toughening its immigration policy.

Spain has more than 2 million legal immigrants from outside the European Union. (dpa)