Spain takes first step to regularise half a million migrants

Backed by more than 600,000 signatures and with the support of numerous NGOs, the Spanish parliament on Tuesday took the first legislative step towards approving a citizen’s initiative calling for the regularisation of half a million undocumented foreigners living in Spain.

The government will process the citizen’s initiative, with the votes secured from the ruling Socialist Party (PSOE/S&D) and the rest of its parliamentary partners, Euractiv’s partner EFE reported on Tuesday.

The initiative has received praise from the Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz (PSOE), who said “absolutely in favour” of the initiative, noting that her party will submit amendments to improve the text.

The main opposition party, the right-wing Partido Popular (EPP), and the far-right party VOX, the third largest opposition force, expressed concern that it could create a “pull effect” to attract more irregular migrants.

The initiative was first presented to parliament in March last year – although it received backing from the two parties in the coalition government, the PSOE and the left-wing Sumar platform, conservative forces opposed it, EFE reported.

According to the project’s promoters, not regularising this group of migrants would violate their fundamental rights, prevent them from contributing to society and make it impossible to plan and develop the public services that citizens need.

In this sense, the NGOs supporting the project have asked political parties not to forget the work of irregular migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2021 in sectors essential for society, such as caring for the elderly, delivering food to homes or harvesting fruit and vegetables.

“Our society owes a debt of gratitude to one of its most vulnerable groups”, said sources from the platform.

The #RegularizaciónYa initiative is made up of the Fundación para la Ciudadanía Global, Fundación Por Causa, Red de Entidades para el Desarrollo Solidario (REDES), Alianza para la Solidaridad and Por un Mundo Más Justo party.

The initiative began in 2021 with a major campaign to collect signatures throughout Spain. In February 2023, the Central Electoral Board ratified that the document had collected half a million signatures needed to start the process in parliament.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)

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