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Migrants Seek Spain Amnesty Status 04/21 06:21
MADRID (AP) -- Migrants in Spain on Monday began applying in person to
legalize their status after the Southern European nation launched an amnesty
measure that could affect hundreds of thousands of foreigners living and
working in the country without authorization.
The program was announced in January and finalized this month. It offers
immigrants without legal status a one-year, renewable residence permit if they
have spent five months living in the country and have a clean criminal record.
They have until the end of June to apply.
There have been questions about the short window to process what Spain's
government has said could include 500,000 migrants, and which Spanish think
tank Funcas estimates is around 840,000 people.
Over 370 post offices opened their doors to applicants and the government
has said they also can apply at 60 social security offices and a handful of
migration offices. Online applications started last Thursday.
Applicants at post offices in the capital, Madrid, and Barcelona described a
process without incident, though some criticized long wait times even with
appointments.
"It's pretty simple since I made an appointment online and I was given one
for this morning," said Nubia Rivas, a 47-year-old Venezuelan migrant who filed
her application at a post office in downtown Madrid. "The process here is a
little slow, but it's fluid."
Venezuelan migrant Johana Moreno showed up to a post office in central
Madrid with her husband. She said she was an archivist in Venezuela but now
works cleaning homes.
"It's what we want," Moreno said about legalizing her status. "To be well,
to work, to contribute, all those things. To pay our taxes. We know that we'll
have rights, but also we'll have obligations."
Prime Minister Pedro Snchez, a progressive, has called the measure "an act
of justice and a necessity," arguing that those already living and working in
Spain should "do so under equal conditions" and pay taxes.
With an aging population, the government says Spain needs more workers to
maintain its growing economy and contribute to social security.
Spain's position sharply differs from prevailing attitudes on immigration in
Europe, where many governments have been trying to curb arrivals and step up
deportations. The Spanish government has defended the legalization measure as
an economic one that has the support of business owners and unions.
In recent years, Spain's population has grown considerably to include around
10 million people who were born outside the country -- or one in every five
residents. Many are from Colombia, Venezuela and Morocco, having fled poverty,
violence or political instability.
Key sectors of the Spanish economy, including agriculture, tourism and the
service sector, depend on immigrants from Latin America and Africa.
It's not the first time Spain has granted amnesty to immigrants living in
the country without authorization. It did so six times before between 1986 and
2005, including under conservative governments.
On Thursday, 25-year-old Moroccan migrant Mourad El-Shaky described waiting
in line outside Barcelona's City Hall for four hours to obtain the paperwork
needed to apply.
El-Shaky said he came to Spain via Turkey, having journeyed all the way west
by foot despite the short distance between Spain and Morocco. The legalization
measure, he said, would "solve many things."
"Without papers (work and residency permits), your hands are tied," El-Shaky
said. "You're like a bird that can't fly, with broken wings."
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