Thousands Of Migrants Descend On Consulates Across Spain After Socialist Government Gave The Green Light To Give 500,000 Legal Status
Thousands of migrants have descended on consulates across
Spain after the country approved plans to give legal status to 500,000 migrants.
Since Saturday, some 8,000 migrants have visited the Moroccan consulate in Almeria alone to collect the necessary documentation needed to gain legal entry into the country.
It comes as online applications opened today after Spain's socialist government rubber-stamped the initiative at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Images from this weekend from Madrid, Bilbao, and Almeria showed snaking queues consisting of hundreds of people in the streets.
In a bid to alleviate pressure on an already overburdened immigration system, only five of the country's 54 immigration offices are responsible for handling applications.
The rest are being distributed among social security offices, post offices, and NGOs, according to the Spanish union CCOO.
Immigration offices across the country this week threatened to strike next week in protest at Prime Minister
Pedro Sanchez's mass amnesty program for undocumented migrants.
The amnesty is a central plank of Sanchez's progressive agenda to harness the economic benefits of migration for its ageing population, even as other European governments move to tighten their borders.

People wait in a long queue to enter the Consulate General of the Kingdom of Morocco in Bilbao, Spain, on April 15, 2026
Since Saturday, some 8,000 migrants have visited the Moroccan consulate in Almeria alone to collect the necessary documentation needed to gain legal entry into the country.
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