Spain’s mass migrant amnesty has attracted almost 900,000 applications, exposing a far larger illegal immigration population than the government previously admitted.
According to the latest figures, the total has already far surpassed the government’s original estimate of around 500,000 beneficiaries and even exceeds higher internal projections of 750,000, despite the application window remaining open until June 30. Around 360,000 applications have already been formally accepted for processing.
The last time Spain carried out a major migrant amnesty was in 2005 under the Socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. That program received just over 691,000 applications and granted approximately 576,000 residence permits. The current scheme has already attracted more applications than that record, even though the deadline has not yet passed.
The rise in applications over recent weeks has been particularly striking. Approximately 350,000 additional applications have been submitted since the start of June, a surge that has caught authorities off guard.
Ministers say the amnesty will allow thousands of migrants already living in Spain to work legally, while bringing in more tax and social security revenue.
Critics, on the other hand, argue that the volume of applications confirms the inability of authorities to assess the true scale of illegal immigration and warn of the potential pull factor that such regularization programmes could generate.
