MADRID - A vast migrant regularisation launched by Spain's leftist government in defiance of a growing European crackdown on irregular immigration ends on Tuesday, with the final hopefuls scrambling to secure their legal status.
The scheme was predicted to benefit around 500,000 people, most from Latin America, when it began in April.
Around 360,000 applications have been deemed "admissible" out of a total of 900,000, but not all requests have been processed, government sources told AFP.
Applicants must prove a clean criminal record and that they had spent at least five consecutive months in Spain before January 1.
The authorities have three months to process their paperwork and decide whether to issue a work and residence permit only valid in Spain.
For Juana Hernandez, a 59-year-old Cuban who has lived in Spain for two and a half years and whose application was recently approved, the plan "is a huge opportunity".
She told AFP she had paid a lawyer roughly 200 euros ($225) to handle the administrative formalities "to be on the safe side", as well as receiving help from a migrant aid association.
Although she was "a little worried" at the start, the English degree holder now aims to work at Madrid airport.
A land of emigrants for centuries, Spain is a key entry point into the European Union for tens of thousands of irregular arrivals alongside Italy and Greece.
Many come via a long and perilous Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands, although numbers dropped last year after peaking in 2024.
Since April, streams of men, women and children have queued in the streets to obtain documents and attend appointments for their regularisation, in addition to online applicants.
- Economic boost -
Although fears arose of a saturation of the services handling the scheme, Mohamed, a Moroccan who lives in the northern region of Cantabria, felt the administrative journey was "relatively easy".
The 23-year-old jobseeker, who declined to give his surname, has been in Spain irregularly for about four years and hopes "to be able to work legally, to pay contributions".
Regularisation will also spare him from unscrupulous employers who "take advantage" of irregular migrants "by paying low salaries, without any rights, or there are places that don't pay at all," he told AFP.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has become a standard-bearer of more open immigration policies as his European neighbours -- including some Socialist peers -- toughen measures under pressure from ascendant far-right parties.
His outlier status on the hot-button topic has reportedly sparked tense exchanges behind closed doors, notably with Italy's far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
"Those who already live in our country and contribute to the economic development of our country deserve to have the same rights as any other citizen," Sanchez said after a recent EU summit in Brussels.
The Socialist, who has presided over one of the world's fastest-growing developed economies in the last few years, has touted the benefits for sectors such as construction that need to boost their workforce.
Spanish business leaders have welcomed the regularisation, but the conservative and far-right opposition are furious about a policy they say will encourage more irregular immigration.
Their discontent was increased by the minority government's use of a decree to pass the measure without parliament's approval.
- by Robin Bjalon (AFP)