SPAIN: Government approves plan to regularise 500,000 undocumented people ― Government expresses opposition to offshore migration centres, urges support for its alternative approach to migration management ― UN Refugee Agency issues reminder about…

• The government has approved a plan to regularise approximately 500,000 undocumented people.
• The government has expressed its opposition to the ongoing push by a number of EU member states for the establishment of migration centres outside the bloc.
• The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has highlighted the continued high-level of international protection needs in Spain despite the recent reduction in arrivals and asylum applications.

The government has approved a plan to regularise approximately 500,000 undocumented people. Announcing the measure in a news conference on 27 January, Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration Elma Saiz Delgado said that Spain was “strengthening a migration model based on human rights, integration, coexistence and compatible with economic growth and social cohesion”. The measure, which is expected to be implemented between April and June, will affect people who have been living in Spain for at least five months, who applied for international protection before 31 December 2025 and who have a clean criminal record. The regularisation will also apply to their children who are already living in Spain. Commenting on the measure, Edith Espínola from the Regularisation Now! movement emphasised its importance, saying: “Regularisation makes you feel like a citizen and a person. It stops you feeling like an object and it lets you fight for your rights. You know those rights are yours but they’re never really yours until you have a plastic card that says you’re a resident of this country”. Espínola’s positive reaction was echoed by ECRE member organisation the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR) which wrote on social media: “The regularisation of thousands of migrants is an act of justice, essential for their social inclusion and for them to be able to live in dignified conditions (…) This measure responds to a shared aspiration on the part of the social movements and it is very positive that it has been activated at this time by the Government”.

The regularisation plan has been fiercely criticised by both the opposition People’s Party (PP) and the far-right Vox party. However, it is not the first time that a government has enacted this type of measure. According to the Guardian newspaper: “PP and socialist governments enacted similar programmes between 1986 and 2005”. It also cited Joan Monràs who co-authored a study into the 2005 regularisation of almost 600,000 people which concluded that the measure had successfully increased tax revenues without creating “magnet effects” in terms of numbers of arrivals. The Funcas think tank has estimated that there were approximately 840,000 undocumented people in Spain at the start of 2025.

The government has expressed its opposition to the ongoing push by a number of EU member states for the establishment of migration centres outside the bloc. On 20 January, Minister for Home Affairs Fernando Grande-Marlaska told the Reuters news agency that external processing centres such as the ones that Italy had opened in October 2024 in Albania were “no magic solution” due to the legal challenges that they posed and their potential for straining relationships with third countries. Grande-Marlaska also encouraged his counterparts to follow the Spanish government’s example and focus on trying to reduce irregular migration at its point of origin. “I believe that our figures and migration policy overall doubtlessly (…) greatly strengthen Spain’s role in defining migratory policy within the European Union,” he said. However, Spain’s approach, which involves close co-operation with authorities in a number of countries in Northwest Africa, has itself been criticised by human rights groups. For example, in August 2025, Human Rights Watch accused authorities in Mauritania of abusing people on the move in the country and even suggested that the human rights violations had been “exacerbated” by the support that had been provided to the those authorities by both the EU and Spain. Grande-Marlaska stated that Spain had “not seen any illegal action or action against refugees’ fundamental rights” and that it was working on strengthening its teams in both Mauritania and Senegal, and delivering more drones and vehicles to “local forces”.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has highlighted the continued high-level of international protection needs in Spain despite the recent reduction in arrivals and asylum applications. In a press release issued on 29 January it which it noted the 43% reduction in sea and land arrivals in 2025 compared to the previous year, the agency stressed that “a decrease in numbers does not necessarily mean a reduction in international protection needs and may, in some cases, reflect stricter obstacles to departure or transit, increased risks, or changes in routes – factors that can translate into greater vulnerability and danger for people on the move”. UNHCR spokesperson Paula Barrachina said: “While arrivals declined, there is no indication that overall protection needs or the drivers of displacement have decreased. The risks along the routes remain high,” adding: “Maritime routes – particularly the route to the Canary Islands – continue to be extremely dangerous, and we remain deeply concerned about deaths and disappearances at sea, as well as the risks of violence, exploitation and human trafficking along the journey”.

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