{"id":832,"date":"2026-02-10T10:05:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T10:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/832\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T10:05:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T10:05:06","slug":"brussels-fears-pedro-sanchezs-plans-to-legalise-half-a-million-irregular-migrants-could-push-illegal-migration-throughout-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/832\/","title":{"rendered":"Brussels fears Pedro Sanchez’s plans to legalise half a million irregular migrants could push illegal migration throughout Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Commission has strong concerns about Spain granting legal status to about 500,000 irregular migrants, according to Euronews.<\/p>\n

Three EU officials told the broadcaster that they were worried the decision ran counter to current migrant policies within the bloc.<\/p>\n

The matter will be debated in the European Parliament on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/p>\n

\"\"EUROPEAN COMMISSION HQ, BRUSSELS<\/p>\n

The Spanish government move was announced in late January and takes in people who entered the country illegally before the end of last year.<\/p>\n

To be eligible, undocumented foreigners must have been living in Spain for at least five months, or have asked for asylum before the end of 2025.<\/p>\n

The new decree will provide beneficiaries with a one-year residence permit and the right to work in any sector everywhere in Spain.<\/p>\n

The decision has now apparently raised eyebrows in Brussels.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not in line with the European Union\u2019s spirit on migration,\u201d one of the EU officials told Euronews.<\/p>\n

Another pointed out that a massive regularisation risks sending a different message compared to the one that the EU is currently communicating outside Europe to deter irregular migration.<\/p>\n

One of the main concerns is the possibility that the regularised migrants would be able to travel across Europe for a maximum of 90 days every 180 days.<\/p>\n

The worry is that this could result in some people trying to take up residence in other EU countries without permission.<\/p>\n

The EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner will address the European Parliament on the issue on Tuesday afternoon, during a debate called \u2018Spain\u2019s large-scale regularisation policy and its impact on the Schengen Area and EU migration policy\u2019.<\/p>\n

Brunner ducked a direct answer to questions in January about Spain\u2019s decision by stating that the issue is a \u2018national responsibility\u2019.<\/p>\n

Click here to read more International Affairs News<\/a> from The Olive Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Commission has strong concerns about Spain granting legal status to about 500,000 irregular migrants, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[18,926,277,125,927,928,929,930,931,192,932],"class_list":["post-832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-brussels","tag-eu-migrant-policy","tag-european-commission","tag-european-union","tag-international-affairs","tag-legal-status-to-migrants-in-spain","tag-news-spain","tag-newspaper","tag-pedro-sanchez","tag-politics","tag-the-olive-press"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}