The Spanish Government has instructed prisons to actively identify foreign inmates eligible for regularisation and to assist in processing their applications as part of the ongoing extraordinary regularisation programme for migrants.
In an internal circular sent by the Spanish General Secretariat for Penitentiary Institutions, the Director General of Penal Execution and Social Reinsertion, Miguel Ángel Vicente Cuenca, directed prison centres to collaborate with immigration offices and government delegations to expedite these requests.
The measure, reported this Monday by El Español, does not create new legal rights but imposes operational obligations on the prison service to prevent foreign prisoners from being released into irregular status, which the Government says would hinder their social reintegration.
More than 30 per cent of Spain’s prison population is foreign, exceeding 15,000 inmates, with significant numbers from Morocco and Algeria.
The directive follows the approval on April 14 of Royal Decree 316/2026, which launched a broad regularisation process for undocumented migrants who were in Spain before January 1, 2026.
The move responds in part to parliamentary pressure from Más Madrid, a left-wing ally of the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) in Congress. It had called for guarantees that migrants in immigration detention centres (CIEs) and prisons could access the regularisation procedure without obstacle.
The prison staff union Tu abandono me puede matar (TAMPM) criticised the speed with which the Secretariat acted on measures benefiting inmates. It also accused it of maintaining “systematic silence” on longstanding demands from prison officers, such as improvements to working hours and recognition of their status as agents of authority.
The instruction forms part of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s wider immigration policy, which includes a major regularisation drive expected to benefit a minimum of half a million people.
Applications for the extraordinary process opened in mid-April and run until June 30, 2026.
While the Spanish Government presents the programme as a pragmatic step to address labour shortages and promote integration, it stands in marked contrast to the broader European trend.
Most European Union member states, backed by the European Commission, are focusing on reducing irregular migration through stricter border controls, faster returns and implementation of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, due to enter into force in June 2026.
EU officials have expressed reservations about the Spanish initiative, warning that it risks conflicting with the bloc’s current deterrent approach and could create secondary movements within the Schengen area.
Opposition parties in Spain have accused the Government of acting against the emerging European consensus on curbing mass irregular migration.
Large crowds of migrants, including many from African countries, have formed outside Spanish consulates and foreign embassies across Spain as the government’s new mass regularisation programme gets underway.https://t.co/R8YP1MoTKh
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) April 16, 2026
