Although the Andalusian organisation welcomes the fact that the reform will allow the regularisation of migrants, it denounces the fact that the Spanish government is not putting respect for human rights at the centre of its migration policies.

The organization Pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía recalls that the right to migrate is recognised in the International Declaration of Human Rights and that the policies of externalisation of borders are causing thousands of deaths on our Southern Border.

APDHA warns that the new reform, which will not come into force until May 2025, leaves in a situation of unprotection to the people who renounced to present the application for international protection to ask for the second chance.

Today Pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía assessed the reform of the Immigration Regulations announced yesterday by Elma Saiz, Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration of the Spanish Government. Although the Andalusian organisation welcomes the fact that this reform could help many migrants in an irregular administrative situation to finally regularise their situation and gain access to rights they had been denied, it denounces that the reform announced by the government ‘is based on utilitarian and mercantilist criteria’. The Andalusian organisation also warns of ‘the unprotected situation in which all those people who renounced the international protection procedure to ask for second chance based on their asylum status may be left behind, since, as the reform of the regulation will not come into force until May 2025, these people ‘are condemned to not being able to work and to remain in a situation of irregularity’.

Pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía points out that, ‘despite the fact that the government itself claims that this reform has been made through dialogue with more than 120 actors, including NGOs, the reality is that the new text seems to respond more to the needs of companies linked to the hotel and catering and agri-food industries, which need labour for jobs in precarious conditions’.

In this sense, APDHA, which is currently focusing its Southern Border 2025 Report on the reality experienced in migrant workers’ settlements in Huelva and Almeria, explains that “in both Andalusian provinces, the agri-food industry requires large amounts of labour, essential for the development of an activity that generates huge economic benefits, despite which the human and labour rights of this group continue to be systematically violated, regardless of whether their administrative situation is regular or irregular”. As the Andalusian organisation points out, ‘neither the owners of the farms nor the municipalities where they are located provide these people with decent accommodation, so they are forced to live in substandard housing, without water and electricity supply and in unhealthy and extremely vulnerable conditions’.

However, ‘although this reform seems to be carried out at the request of the hotel and catering industry and farm owners, APDHA hopes that it will serve to improve the living conditions and the situation of many migrants who, because they are in an irregular administrative situation, see their most basic rights violated on a daily basis’. Even so, the Andalusian Association for Human Rights continues to ‘support the Popular Legislative Initiative which is being processed and having the signature and support of more than 700,000 citizens, would guarantee the rights of more than 500,000 people who are currently in an irregular administrative situation in the territory of the Spanish State’.

APDHA continues to call for ‘a migration policy that puts respect for human rights at the centre’ and denounces that ‘the policies of externalisation of borders, which place the control of migratory routes in the hands of countries that violate the most basic rights, are causing thousands of deaths and are turning the Mediterranean into a mass grave for those fleeing war, violence or misery’.

Media contacts

Juanjo G. Marín, tel. 954 53 62 70 – 647 461 592 – Andalusian Headquarters, CommunicationAna Mª Rosado, Area of Migration of APDHA, tel. 690 019 644
María José García ‘Toche’, legal advisor APDHA Cádiz, tel. 619 087 298