Absolute collapse and despair: the massive regularization of 500,000 migrants plunges Spain into chaos

Absolute collapse and despair: the massive regularization of 500,000 migrants plunges Spain into chaos

The first week of the extraordinary regularization (started on April 20) has caused a total collapse of public services throughout the country. The Immigration, Social Security and Post offices are overflowing, and thousands of people are living a real bureaucratic odyssey full of uncertainty and frustration.

In just five days, more than 60,600 applications have been registered throughout Spain. The agendas are practically sold out and there are very few appointments available. Many applicants are faced with the desperate reality that there are no openings until June or even later.

The situation is especially dramatic in Catalonia, the region with the highest concentration of migrants:

- In L'Hospitalet de Llobregat they had to open the La Farga fairgrounds, where they serve more than 2,000 people a day.

- The Ibn Battuta Foundation in the Raval of Barcelona was forced to close its doors: it already has 8,000 full appointments until June and cannot attend to anyone else.

- Barcelona has urgently activated four new walk-in service points.

- In Badalona they only give out 270 shifts a day, and even then the queues are endless.

The majority union of civil servants CSIF has harshly denounced the ”terrible planning and improvisation" of the government:

- Constant failures in the old Mercurio platform (only allows 15 Mb of documents).

- Severe lack of staff and insufficient training.

- Whole families come with a single appointment, which multiplies the attention times.

- Many offices close at 21:00, leaving the workers exhausted.

Thousands of applicants travel from one place to another municipalities and entities in search of certificates of registration and social vulnerability, with confusing information and hardly any appointments available. The general feeling is one of chaos and abandonment.

The Catalan authorities estimate that only in this community between 120,000 and 150,000 people could benefit from the program. The second great wave of pressure will arrive in July, when the files will be transferred to the SEPE, Social Security and Police, and everything points to the situation getting worse.

(El País, El Mundo and ABC, April 21-22, 2026)