Migrants Seek Spain Amnesty Status     04/21 06:21

   

   MADRID (AP) -- Migrants in Spain on Monday began applying in person to 
legalize their status after the Southern European nation launched an amnesty 
measure that could affect hundreds of thousands of foreigners living and 
working in the country without authorization.

   The program was announced in January and finalized this month. It offers 
immigrants without legal status a one-year, renewable residence permit if they 
have spent five months living in the country and have a clean criminal record. 
They have until the end of June to apply.

   There have been questions about the short window to process what Spain's 
government has said could include 500,000 migrants, and which Spanish think 
tank Funcas estimates is around 840,000 people.

   Over 370 post offices opened their doors to applicants and the government 
has said they also can apply at 60 social security offices and a handful of 
migration offices. Online applications started last Thursday.

   Applicants at post offices in the capital, Madrid, and Barcelona described a 
process without incident, though some criticized long wait times even with 
appointments.

   "It's pretty simple since I made an appointment online and I was given one 
for this morning," said Nubia Rivas, a 47-year-old Venezuelan migrant who filed 
her application at a post office in downtown Madrid. "The process here is a 
little slow, but it's fluid."

   Venezuelan migrant Johana Moreno showed up to a post office in central 
Madrid with her husband. She said she was an archivist in Venezuela but now 
works cleaning homes.

   "It's what we want," Moreno said about legalizing her status. "To be well, 
to work, to contribute, all those things. To pay our taxes. We know that we'll 
have rights, but also we'll have obligations."

   Prime Minister Pedro Snchez, a progressive, has called the measure "an act 
of justice and a necessity," arguing that those already living and working in 
Spain should "do so under equal conditions" and pay taxes.

   With an aging population, the government says Spain needs more workers to 
maintain its growing economy and contribute to social security.

   Spain's position sharply differs from prevailing attitudes on immigration in 
Europe, where many governments have been trying to curb arrivals and step up 
deportations. The Spanish government has defended the legalization measure as 
an economic one that has the support of business owners and unions.

   In recent years, Spain's population has grown considerably to include around 
10 million people who were born outside the country -- or one in every five 
residents. Many are from Colombia, Venezuela and Morocco, having fled poverty, 
violence or political instability.

   Key sectors of the Spanish economy, including agriculture, tourism and the 
service sector, depend on immigrants from Latin America and Africa.

   It's not the first time Spain has granted amnesty to immigrants living in 
the country without authorization. It did so six times before between 1986 and 
2005, including under conservative governments.

   On Thursday, 25-year-old Moroccan migrant Mourad El-Shaky described waiting 
in line outside Barcelona's City Hall for four hours to obtain the paperwork 
needed to apply.

   El-Shaky said he came to Spain via Turkey, having journeyed all the way west 
by foot despite the short distance between Spain and Morocco. The legalization 
measure, he said, would "solve many things."

   "Without papers (work and residency permits), your hands are tied," El-Shaky 
said. "You're like a bird that can't fly, with broken wings."