Spain’s socialist government is moving forward with an amnesty program that will allow illegal migrants to simply declare they have no criminal record, instead of providing official documentation from their home கொள்ள countries — a policy critics warn could be easily exploited by criminals.
Last month, the left-wing coalition government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez agreed to grant legal status to more than half a million illegal migrants, allowing them to obtain residence permits and remain in Spain.
Although the program formally excludes migrants with criminal records (other than illegal entry), a government decree published this week shows that authorities will largely rely on migrants’ own statements about their past.
According to Spanish newspaper ABC, migrants will be allowed to submit a sworn declaration claiming they have no criminal history if they can prove they merely requested their criminal record from their country of origin or from any country where they lived during the past five years.
“If this information is not received within one month, the Administration will inform the interested party of this circumstance, who may submit a sworn statement of the absence of a criminal record,” the decree states.
Law-enforcement sources told ABC the system is almost guaranteed to increase crime.
“Let’s not fool ourselves; if this information were requested from Spain by a third party, it would normally take us more than a month,” one police source said. “The countries of origin aren’t going to have any special interest in cooperating… and that’s just talking about criminal records, not police records, when many crimes never go to trial, either here or abroad.”
Authorities are also warning that the amnesty program is creating a new “pull factor” for illegal immigration. National Police reportedly have already noticed an influx of migrants who had been living in other European countries moving to Spain to try to benefit from the policy.
According to ABC, long lines recently seen outside the Algerian consulate in Alicante were largely made up not of Algerians living in Spain, but of illegal migrants from France seeking Spanish residence permits so they could later return to France legally under EU free-movement rules.
The amnesty could ultimately grant legal residence to more than two million foreign nationals, allowing them to travel freely throughout the European Union’s open-border Schengen zone. Despite the potential impact on the entire bloc, the European Commission has so far refused to intervene.
This contrasts with Brussels’ frequent interventions against conservative governments over domestic policies involving abortion or LGBT education.
Prime Minister Sánchez, who lost the last election but remained in power through alliances with Catalan separatists, has argued that Western countries must import more migrants to sustain their economies and public services.
His far-left coalition partner, Podemos, has been more explicit about its goals. MEP Irene Montero recently said she wants migrants to “replace” Spaniards she considers political enemies.
“I wish for replacement theory,” Montero said. “I wish we could sweep this country of fascists and racists with migrants, with working people. Of course, I want there to be replacement: replacement of fascists, replacement of racists, replacement of freeloaders, and that we can do it with working people, whatever their skin colour may be.”
