Spain to regularise 500,000 undocumented migrants: minister

MADRID: Spain’s left-wing government will on Tuesday approve a decree that will regularise 500,000 undocumented migrants, the migration minister said, the country’s latest break with harsher policies elsewhere in Europe.

Elma Saiz told public broadcaster RTVE that the beneficiaries would be able to work “in any sector, in any part of the country” and pointed to “the positive impact” of migration.

“We are talking about estimations, probably more or less the figures may be around half a million people,” she added, saying the government was “recognising and dignifying” people already in Spain.

Sources from her ministry said the measure would affect those living in Spain for at least five months and who had applied for international protection before December 31, 2025.

The regularisation will also include children of the applicants who already live in Spain, the sources added.

The application period will open in April and continue until the end of June, Saiz said.

The decree will not need to be passed in parliament, where the Socialist-led coalition lacks a majority.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says Spain needs migration to fill workforce gaps and counteract an ageing population that could imperil pensions and the welfare state.

His government’s more open stance on migration starkly contrasts with a trend that has seen far-right parties campaigning on anti-immigration platforms gain ground across the European Union.

Spain is on the front line of the continent’s migration crisis, with tens of thousands of irregular arrivals landing in the Canary Islands archipelago off northwestern Africa.

Irregular migrant arrivals to Spain fell by more than 40 percent in 2025, largely due to a sharp drop in flows along the perilous Atlantic route from west Africa to the Canary Islands.

According to the latest figures published by the National Statistics Institute, more than seven million foreigners live in Spain out of a total population of 49.4 million people.