Alex Trelinski
SPAIN will grant residency and work permits annually for the next three years to around 300,000 migrants who are in the country illegally.
The policy will take effect next May and aims to expand the country’s ageing workforce.
Migration Minister Elma Saiz says Spain needs around 250,000 registered foreign workers a year to maintain its welfare state.
READ MORE:
- Spain’s population reaches all-time high following influx of immigrants – despite THOUSANDS of Brits leaving
- ‘Hero’ African migrant is offered work after his rescue of a woman during the Malaga floods went viral
- Plans to turn Spanish airport into an emergency migrant arrival centre slammed as a ‘concentration camp’
She said that legalisation policy is not aimed solely at ‘cultural wealth and respect for human rights, it’s also prosperity’.
“Today, we can say Spain is a better country,” Saiz told Radio Nacional.
The new policy simplifies administrative procedures for short- and long-term visas and provides migrants with additional work protection.
It also extends a visa offered previously to job seekers for three months to one year.
In 2023, Spain issued 1.3 million visas to foreigners, according to the government.
About 54,000 migrants have reached Spain this year by sea or land, according to the Interior Ministry, but the exact number of foreigners living illegally in the country is not known.
Many such migrants make a living in black economy as fruit pickers, caretakers, delivery drivers or other low-paid but essential jobs often passed over by Spaniards.
Without legal protections, they can be vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
Saiz said the new policy would help prevent such abuse and ‘serve to combat mafias, fraud and the violation of rights’.
