Spain’s Leftist Government Announces Amnesty for at Least 500,000 Illegal Migrants

by GB News, Michael Heaver and The Telegraph

Spain’s leftist government will give legal residency and employment rights to at least half a million migrants under a new amnesty law. Many of the migrants are men of military age from Africa and the Middle East. As many as 1.3 million migrants may be absorbed into the program.

The current government lacks a working majority in congress and circumvented a vote by instead issuing a royal decree.

Spain’s population approaches 50 million people. The amnesty is in response to a petition signed by more than 600,000 people and delivered to parliament, calling for 700,000 migrants to be given papers.

Even more migrants will be drawn to Spain to obtain legal residency. Critics warn that Spain’s public services will be drained. Spain has also offered free medical care to migrants, bucking the current European trend of restricting rights to migrants.

Spain’s Left-wing government will give legal residency rights to at least half a million migrants under a new amnesty law.

Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, said the amnesty was an act of justice but also of necessity, to continue Spain’s strong economic growth and safeguard public pensions by bringing younger workers into the country.

From Thursday, hundreds of thousands of migrants without papers will be able to apply for residency as long as they can prove that they have lived in Spain for five months and that they were in the country before Jan 1.

Applicants have to demonstrate only one of three further conditions: that they have worked in Spain, have family there or are in a situation of proven vulnerability.

Migrants must also show that they do not have a criminal record in their countries of origin. Mr Sánchez’s government will assist via diplomatic channels in cases where applicants do not obtain a speedy response.

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Spain’s Right-wing opposition and the European Commission criticised the move, which is at odds with the shift towards restricting immigration that has been seen across Europe.

In 2004, Spain’s previous Socialist government held an amnesty in which applicants had to show work contracts, but the conditions this time are much less demanding.

In a “letter to citizens”, Mr Sánchez wrote: “Today once again I feel proud to be Spanish. Because today we show that Spain advances when society shows its commitment.”

The amnesty is in response to a petition signed by more than 600,000 people and delivered to parliament, calling for 700,000 migrants to be given papers.

But Mr Sánchez’s government lacks a working majority in congress and instead decided to draw up the amnesty as a royal decree, which becomes law instantly.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the People’s Party (PP), Spain’s main opposition, said the move was “inhumane because it encourages the organised crime” of people-trafficking mafias, and was “unfair, unsafe and unsustainable”.

The PP cited an estimate by the Spanish police’s immigration unit that 1.2 million people would use the amnesty while “Spaniards see how their public services are impoverished day by day”.

Vox, the far-Right party, said it would go to the courts to challenge the plan, which it said would “empty the public coffers and fill Spain’s jails”.

Supported by the hierarchy of Spain’s Catholic Church, the amnesty will run until the end of June, the month during which the Pope will visit Spain and meet immigrants in the Canary Islands, which they reached via a perilous crossing from Africa.

Magnus Brunner, the EU commissioner for internal affairs and migration, accepted that the amnesty was part of Spain’s national competency on immigration, but warned that other European countries would not allow the holders of Spanish residency permits to travel within the union.

Spain’s economy is currently the fastest-growing in the eurozone, with foreigners taking up around half of all jobs created.

According to government figures from the end of 2025, 14 per cent of contributors to Spain’s social security system are foreigners, some 3.1 million workers.

The 2004 amnesty, when José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was prime minister, allowed 577,000 foreigners to gain residency permits and switch to doing declared work and paying tax contributions.

Recent studies suggest that about 1.5 million people work cash-in-hand in Spain’s shadow economy, which is thought to be worth at least 20 per cent of GDP.

Despite increased polarisation on the issue, with Vox rising to become Spain’s third-largest party, Mr Sánchez believes that promoting immigration is a core value of Left-leaning voters, citing Spain’s past as a country of migrants.

“This move does justice to our own history, our grandfathers and grandmothers who emigrated to America and Europe in search of a better life,” Mr Sánchez said.

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