Spain Plans to Send Half a Million Undocumented Migrants Home

Spain's government plans to legalize around half a million undocumented migrants, highlighting the importance of the move as the country's population ages.

On the other hand, the move was greeted with a strike call by immigration officers who said they were unprepared to handle such a large number.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described the plan as "an act of justice and a necessity".

"Spain is aging. Without more people working and contributing to the economy, our prosperity slows down and our public services suffer," he said at X, launching The National (15/4).

The amnesty is a key pillar of PM Sanchez's progressive agenda to harness the economic benefits of migration for Spain's aging population, as other European governments move to tighten their borders to blunt political challenges from the right.

The online application will open on Thursday, after the government approved the initiative in a cabinet meeting this week.

However, immigration officers warned that the system was still not ready to face the challenge and had threatened to go on strike from April 21, the day after the face-to-face appointment was opened, stopping all immigration applications in protest at the lack of resources allocated for the process.

"The government is once again implementing a new regularization without providing the economic resources that the offices need to handle it," Cesar Perez, a trade union leader for Spanish immigration officers, told Reuters.

In an effort to reduce pressure on the already overloaded immigration system, only five of the country's 54 immigration offices will be responsible for handling applications, while the rest are distributed among social security offices, post offices and NGOs, said the Spanish union CCOO.

It is known that Spain's population of almost 50 million has swelled in recent years to include some 10 million people born abroad.

Spanish think tank Funcas estimates that 840,000 undocumented migrants are part of the current workforce.

The center-right Popular Party, the opposition, considered the move rash, although the previous conservative government had implemented similar measures.