A LEAKED police report suggests that the number of undocumented migrants in Spain that will be legalised under a new amnesty could be more than double the 500,000 estimated by the government.
The El Confidencial news portal has obtained a document dated January 29 produced for the Policia Nacional by the National Centre for Immigration and Borders(CNIF).
It claims that between one million and 1.35 million undocumented migrants will benefit from the regularisation process.
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Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, stated earlier this month around 500,000 people would take up the offer.
The CNIF study says that between 750,000 and one million undocumented immigrants living in Spain will apply for regularisation, with the vast majority gaining approval due to ‘very lenient’ requirements.
Between 250,000 and 350,000 asylum seekers will also apply, according to the CNIF.
Police immigration experts also predict that the flow of migrants to Spain will rise.
El Confidencial quotes the CNIF as stating that there is ‘an international perception of Spain as a country more permissive with irregular immigration’
The announcement of the regularisation, the report states,has had a ‘very intense media impact, especially in Latin America. Which is being interpreted in the countries of origin as a highly relevant pull factor.’
The CNIF also compiled material, sourced from social media and the dark web, with information in numerous languages on how to regularise living status in Spain.
It points out that illegal immigration is also facilitated because in Spain ‘controls on internal borders have not been reinstated’.
This refers to document-free travel between 25 EU member states who are part of the Schengen Area, and it comments that some countries like Germany, Italy, and Poland are carrying out checks.
In the medium and long term, the CNIF predicts that there will be ‘secondary movements from other Schengen countries’ to Spain, ranging between 200,000 and 250,000 new immigrants per annum.
There will also be a ‘shift in maritime migration from the central and eastern Mediterranean’ to the western Mediterranean, i.e. Spain.
Arrivals by sea are expected to increase by between 6,000 and 12,000 migrants per year.
The CNIF also anticipates an 8% to 10% surge in immigration (between 35,000 and 45,000 people per year) from what it describes as ‘direct areas'” meaning people- primarily South Americans- who, with or without the required documentation, manage to reach Spanish airports.
The Ministry of Social Inclusion rejected the arguments of the CNIF via its website.
It said ‘there is no pull factor when a clear timescale, a defined cut-off date, and a closed application period are established’.
It added that regularisation was a good way on curbing ‘those who exploit people’.
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