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Spain approves decree/ 500 thousand undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers will be legalized

2026-01-27 15:50:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Spain approves decree/ 500 thousand undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers

Spain's Socialist-led coalition government has approved a decree that will legalize 500,000 undocumented migrants and asylum seekers, rejecting the anti-migration policies and rhetoric that prevails in much of Europe.

The decree, which is expected to come into force in April, will apply to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers and people in Spain with an irregular status. To qualify for regularization, applicants will have to prove they have no criminal record and have lived in Spain for at least five months, or have requested international protection, before December 31, 2025.

Announcing the decision after Tuesday's weekly cabinet meeting, Elma Saiz, Spain's minister for inclusion, social security and migration, said it was a "historic day", adding that the initiative was designed to "break the bureaucratic barriers of the past".

Saiz said the program, which is being approved by royal decree, meaning it does not require parliamentary approval, would benefit Spain as a whole.

"We are reinforcing a migration model based on human rights, integration and coexistence that is compatible with both economic growth and social cohesion," she said.

The decree came after pressure from former Socialist allies in the left-wing Podemos party, which has a tense relationship with the government.

In recent years, Spain has become a European outlier when it comes to migration. Addressing parliament in October 2024, the country's prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, said the country was at a demographic crossroads and needed migration to grow its economy and support its welfare state.

“Throughout history, migration has been one of the great drivers of the development of nations, while hatred and xenophobia have been - and continue to be - the greatest destroyers of nations,” he said. “The key is in managing it well.”

The announcement was welcomed by the Brussels-based Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (Picum).

“Today’s decision by the Spanish government to adopt a broad regulatory measure is a powerful reminder that regulation is not only possible – it works and is the right thing to do,” said Laetitia Van der Vennet, a senior advocacy officer at Picum.

The decision also received approval from the Spanish movement "Regularisation Now!", which stated that it had come in an international context marked by the tightening of immigration policies, the closure of borders and the criminalisation of migrants in much of Europe.

However, this move has been sharply criticized by the conservative Popular Party (PP), even though the party ordered similar initiatives when it was in government, and by the far-right Vox party.

PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo accused the prime minister of using the announcement to divert attention from the government's response to last week's deadly train accident, in which at least 45 people died.

"Sanchez's first response is a massive overhaul to divert attention, increase the pull effect and overload our public services. In socialist Spain, lawlessness is rewarded ," he said.

High rates of migration to Spain have helped push unemployment rates to their lowest level since 2008, and migrants have filled gaps in the labor market caused by an aging population.

Even some of immigration's most ardent critics have acknowledged its necessity: in June, Italy's Giorgia Meloni, the far-right leader who has long called irregular migrants a threat to Europe's future, said her government would issue nearly 500,000 new work visas to non-EU nationals in the coming years, on top of the 450,000 granted since she took power. /CNA