Spain's lower house of parliament voted on April 9 to start working on a bill proposed by civil society groups with more than 600,000 signatories that would grant residency and work permits to hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants.

Starting from Spain's lower house of parliament, this gives the political parties up to two months to discuss and amend the proposal and conclude how to legalize the hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants living in Spain before making a final vote.

This bill would give legal status to foreigners who arrived in Spain before November 1, 2021, including hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Latin America and Africa. In addition to permitting them to live and work in Spain legally, it will also allow them to pay taxes, contribute to Social Security, and access healthcare, education, and other public services.

Around 900 rights groups and other non-governmental organizations, part of the #RegularizacionYa platform, proposed this bill and estimated that the number of undocumented migrants in Spain could be close to half a million, around a third of them minors.

Migration researcher Jesus Fernandez Huerta said that recent amendments to the law regulating permits and work visas for foreigners may have decreased this figure to below 300,000 people.

Left and right

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In a statement issued over the weekend, the Spanish Catholic Church urged political parties to back the legislative proposal.

In a last-minute stance shift, the conservative opposition People's Party supported the proposal, leaving the far-right, anti-immigration party Vox as the sole party to vote against with 310 out of 343 votes backing this bill. 

As for the socialist-led leftist ruling coalition, it had initially showcased doubts about the initiative, however, it ended up supporting it, provided that it would be amended later.

Spain was scolded for maltreating minor asylum seekers

Courts reprimanded each of Spain, Greece, and Hungary for disregarding children's rights and their protection, The Guardian reported on January 24. 

In a saga of children's rights violations, courts found the European countries liable for the maltreatment of minors seeking asylum within their borders. 

The first incident was berated by the Spanish Supreme Court as Spanish authorities mass deported Moroccan refugees who had crossed the border into Spain, amid the Western Sahara conflict between Madrid and Rabat. Spain opted to deport at least 700 unaccompanied minors without considering and investigating their circumstances.

The court ruled this move was illegal, saying it endangered their lives and put them at risk of "severe psychological harm," breached the country's minors protection and domestic immigration laws, and violated the European Convention on Human Rights. 

At the time of the incident, Spanish broadcaster RTVE conducted interviews with 10 immigrant children, all between the ages of 13 and 16. It was reported that they escaped state care to avoid being deported and have been living in the trenches, but would rather have that over going somewhere else where they would be "worse off". The children also revealed that authorities did not ask for any background information when they first crossed the border and did not acknowledge their circumstances. 

Spain's Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, defended the decision to mass deport immigrants, claiming it complied with the law and considered the children's best interests, in a discussion with reporters on January 23.