Spain gets deluge of migrant applications

Spain has been overwhelmed with applications from undocumented migrants wanting to take advantage of an amnesty that allows irregular arrivals to become legal residents with work visas.

The amnesty, which the Spanish government thought would attract interest from as many as 500,000 people, had drawn applications from 900,000 undocumented migrants by Monday, the country's migration ministry said.

The non-profit refugee aid organization CEAR said it expects the total to pass 1 million by the time the amnesty ends in two weeks.

Monica Lopez, CEAR's director, said on Monday that the government should be doing all it can to bring everyone into regular society who arrived in the country illegally and without papers, and that more work needs to be done.

"This is an extraordinary program, but there should be a structural measure to facilitate access to work and residence permits, in order to avoid creating groups of people living on the margins of society," she added.

Pilar Cancela, Spain's secretary of state for migration, told the Reuters news agency the country has everything in place needed to handle applications from 1 million people, but she added that the country will not grant legal status to everyone who applies for it.

The ministry added that it has granted migrants 360,000 temporary work permits since April.

Spain has had a relatively tolerant attitude toward illegal migrants in comparison to many other European countries, and has seen robust economic growth during the past two years as a result, as migrants have helped with labor shortages in sectors including hospitality.

Elsewhere in Europe, countries without labor shortages have seen the rise of far-right anti-immigrant political parties in the wake of huge influxes of people arriving illegally, largely from the Middle East and Africa.

In contrast to Spain's welcoming policies, Sweden passed a law on Monday that will make it easier for the authorities to revoke migrants' residency permits, if they have demerits against them, such as unpaid debts, a history of working without paying tax, or links to extremist organizations.

The law is being seen as part of a tightening of the country's immigration rules by its right-wing government and coalition partner, the nationalist Sweden Democrats.

Human rights groups have criticized the new law because it could be used to penalize people for behavior that is not criminal, with the Stockholm-based Civil Rights Defenders saying: "The 'good behavior law' leaves people in uncertainty about what actions or expressions can be used against them. It undermines the rule of law and the principle of equality before the law."

Johan Forssell, Sweden's minister for migration, said in March as he proposed the legislation: "Anyone who doesn't make the effort to do the right thing shouldn't be able to count on staying."

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