Spain's migrant regularisation ends with over 1 million apps

Spain's program to grant legal residency to undocumented migrants concluded on Tuesday with applications far exceeding the government's initial projections. Officials reported receiving more than one million applications, a figure that significantly surpasses the original estimate of around 500,000 beneficiaries when the policy was launched in April.

The program offered a one-year, renewable residence and work permit to applicants who could prove they had lived in Spain for at least five consecutive months before January 1 and had a clean criminal record. Authorities now have three months to process the submitted paperwork. As of mid-June, approximately 360,000 applications had been deemed admissible and were being processed, though not all have received a final decision.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez defended the measure as an act of justice and an economic necessity, arguing it integrates people already contributing to the economy into the formal system where they can work under equal conditions and pay taxes. He stated the high number of applications demonstrated the policy's necessity. The government and some business leaders have highlighted the need for immigrant labor in...