Several non-governmental organizations in Spain are urging illegal immigrants to register for a special mass regularization process that has attracted around a million people in just a few weeks and is set to end on Tuesday.
Regularization Efforts
In the final hours before the deadline, NGOs were stepping up efforts to contact and advise migrants still trying to gather the documents required to apply for a one-year residence permit, in a country where around 840,000 people work off the books and it can take more than a year to obtain legal status.
Rights groups CEAR and Cepaim urged migrants to submit applications even if they were still waiting for required documents from home countries like Mali, Iran, or Venezuela.
Between April and June, the Spanish government received almost double the 500,000 registrations it had expected.
Bureaucratic Hurdles
Migrants from conflict-affected countries like Iran or Mali have faced obstacles legalizing documents at Spanish consulates, a process that is also complex in Algeria and Nigeria.
Venezuelans have encountered delays obtaining apostilles for criminal record certificates, while Spain’s policy changes forced asylum seekers to switch to this procedure early in June, leaving less time to prepare documentation.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
