A petition gathering more than 600,000 signatures supported by some 900 associations was submitted to the Spanish Parliament. She calls for the exceptional regularization of all undocumented immigrants living in the country.
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The initiative was launched three years ago by a migrant defense collective. She calls for the implementation of “ mechanisms allowing » to undocumented immigrants living in Spain “ to escape from a situation of invisibility and “lawlessness” “. It will be examined in plenary session by the deputies who will have to give the green light or not to the formal examination of a bill on the subject.
The far-left Sumar formation, partner of the Prime Minister’s socialist party Pedro Sanchez within the government, has already positioned itself in favor of massive regularization. The socialists, more timid, believe that European law does not allow generalized regularization of undocumented immigrants.
Read on InfoMigrantsSpain: the debate for the regularization of 500,000 undocumented immigrants begins in Parliament
“ According to the most recent estimates, between 390,000 and 470,000 people are in an irregular situation in Spain, a third of whom are minors. », recalls the text submitted to the deputies, to which 906 associations as well as the Church gave their support. The text also denounces the very restrictive nature of the criteria for access to a residence permit and “ the administrative procedure » to obtain such a title or its renewal « is slow, bureaucratic » and includes “ a significant part of arbitrariness “.
According to the collective, this situation harms the “fundamental rights” of undocumented immigrants and the latter, not being taxed, results in “ a significant economic and fiscal shortfall » for Spain. The authors of the text recall that massive regularization policies have already been implemented on several occasions in recent years in theEuropean Unionparticularly in Spain, in 2000 and 2005.
In 2000, conservative Prime Minister José Maria Aznar regularized nearly 137,000 illegal immigrants, before tightening the conditions for granting residence permits. In 2005, the government of socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in turn regularized some 580,000 irregular immigrants in an “exceptional” process, attracting criticism in Europe.
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