Spain Receives 1.2 Million Applications for Migrant Amnesty, Adding 160,000 Workers to Employment Registers

Spain received 1.2 million applications for legal status under its Extraordinary Regularisation amnesty between April and May, GB News reported. The Spanish government had predicted no more than 500,000 migrants would apply. The program grants a temporary one-year residence and work permit to undocumented migrants who arrived in Spain before January 1, 2026, and who have a clean criminal record after living there for five consecutive months.

Only 20 percent of applicants might qualify for international protection, the Spanish Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration confirmed. Seven percent of applicants submitted forms themselves while 93 percent used professional advisors, mostly immigration lawyers.

The majority of applicants are male, six out of ten are under age 34, and Colombians form the largest group, with two out of three applicants from Central and South America.

Twenty-three percent are of African descent and eight percent are from Asia. Spain claims the amnesty added 160,000 workers to employment registers. Youth unemployment stood at 454,000 in the first quarter of 2026, nearly a quarter of young people in the country.

The border between Spain and Gibraltar was removed on July 15. Britain is finalizing a Youth Mobility Scheme with the EU Commission. Conservative peer Lord Redwood told GB News that one of the main reasons the UK voted to leave the European Union was the open borders policy and that Spain shows the dangers of letting in hundreds of thousands that other EU states consider illegals who should not stay.

Lord Redwood added that the last UK government was thrown out for not stopping runaway migration and that the current government has given away control of Gibraltar's border with Spain while offering to take in more young people through a mobility scheme. Britain's youth unemployment rate is 16.2 percent and has risen sharply in the last two years.