More than 50,000 people arrived on Spanish shores in 2023. This figure, which almost reaches the historical record of 57,498 migrants in 2018, comes at a time when the European Union has agreed on a migration and asylum pact that will tighten conditions host. Given this agreement that “does not satisfy the expectations generated”, the deputy of Sumar and leader of the PCE, Enrique Santiago, has announced a bill to facilitate asylum applications. Thus, they propose that any migrant who is under the control of Spanish authorities, even if it is in International waterscan request asylum and recover this procedure in the embassies and consulates Spanish people.

From the Congress press room he has claimed the “need to guarantee access to international protection for persecuted people when they have not been able to reach the border, but are under control of authorities” Spanish. The bill details that this would affect those migrants who were “intercepted in international waters“. Currently, the law regulating the right of asylum and subsidiary protection establishes that it can only be requested once within the national territory.

Santiago has explained that with this new mechanism it would be possible to stop sudden returns, since when requesting asylum the migrants must be identified and “study the relevance” of granting that international protection that comes with refugee status.

Embassies and consulates

Sumar also proposes recovering the procedure that was in force from 1984 until 2009 according to which asylum applications could be made in the Spanish embassies and consulates. Since 2009, the law only includes a procedure for the transfer to Spain of those people who are at risk in a third country. Once on Spanish soil you can formalize your asylum request. Santiago has advocated reestablishing the previous regulations to “advance legal security and guarantees for affected people“.

Finally, they want to introduce into the current asylum law maximum deadlines for the resolution of the different requests, since they currently take months, and facilitate requests by recognizing that they can be made by any means accepted by law, while that now it is necessary that they be done by personal appearance in the established places.