{"id":5184,"date":"2026-04-15T09:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T09:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/5184\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T09:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T09:27:12","slug":"spain-to-legalise-around-half-a-million-undocumented-migrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/5184\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain to legalise around half a million undocumented migrants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spain<\/a> is preparing to legalise around half a million undocumented migrants, causing immigration officers across the country to call for a strike.<\/p>\n

Unions say civil servants are unprepared to handle such large numbers.<\/p>\n

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez<\/a> has described it as an \u201cact of justice and a necessity\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cSpain is ageing \u2026 without more people working and contributing to the economy, our prosperity slows and our public services suffer,\u201d he said on X.<\/p>\n

The amnesty is a central plank of Mr Sanchez’s progressive agenda to \u2060harness the economic benefits of migration for Spain’s ageing population, even as other \u200bEuropean \u2060governments move to tighten their borders \u200cto head off political challenges by the far-right<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Online applications will open on Thursday, \u200bafter the government rubber-stamped the initiative at a cabinet meeting this week.<\/p>\n

However, immigration officers warn the system remains unprepared for the challenge and have threatened to strike from April 21, a day after in-person appointments open, halting all immigration applications in protest at the lack of resources allocated to the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is once again implementing a new regularisation without giving offices enough economic resources to handle it,\u201d Cesar Perez, a union leader for Spain\u2019s immigration officers, told Reuters.<\/p>\n

In a bid to alleviate pressure on an already overburdened immigration system<\/a>, only five of the country’s 54 immigration offices will be responsible for handling applications, with the rest distributed among social \u200bsecurity offices, post offices and NGOs, Spanish \u200cunion CCOO said.<\/p>\n

Spain’s near 50 million population \u2060has swelled in recent years to include \u200baround 10 million born abroad. \u200bSpanish think \u200ctank Funcas estimates 840,000 undocumented migrants make up part of the workforce at present.<\/p>\n

The centre-right opposition Popular \u2060Party has deemed the drive reckless, despite previous conservative governments pushing through similar measures.<\/p>\n

Isabel \u2060Diaz Ayuso, president of the community of Madrid and a prominent figure in the party, has threatened to launch an appeal in court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain is preparing to legalise around half a million undocumented migrants, causing immigration officers across the country to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,2402,2401,2403],"class_list":{"0":"post-5184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-spain","9":"tag-standard","10":"tag-story","11":"tag-uk-bureau"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}