When Fernando Grande-Marlaska assumed the Interior portfolio in mid-2018, the irregular arrivals of immigrants – especially via the Canary Islands route – were in full swing. That year ended with 64,298 people entering Spain irregularly, 131% more than in 2017. One of the minister’s obsessions during his two terms at the head of the department has been “fair and orderly” migration management ” based on two axes: effective collaboration with the countries of origin and transit of migrants – Niger, Mauritania, Morocco – and the fight against mafias that traffic in people. With this recipe, the route to Spain has become the only one in the European Union to decline: in 2022 it closed with 25.5% fewer entries into the country.
These data serve as a picture of the true current situation of irregular migration in Spain, even though the extreme right speaks – and is included in its electoral program – of “the disorderly arrival of millions of immigrants and ·legal” for Sánchez’s policies. Vox has long since turned what it calls “illegal” immigration into its battle horse – even though crossing a border irregularly is not a crime -. And this campaign will continue to be.
From the ultra formation they have reiterated that if their votes are necessary to articulate an alternative majority to the left they will put their demands on the table – also in migration matters – which are detailed in their program. A document that includes the most extreme positions of his ideological wars, which could hardly be assumed by the Popular Party, his hypothetical majority partner.
“Any immigrant who arrives illegally will never be able to regularize their situation in Spain.” forceful But it’s not just people who jump the fences of Ceuta or Melilla or arrive on foot in the islands or the Peninsula, they also promise to expel those who commit serious crimes “or make minor crimes their way of life”.
The management of so-called external immigration – the return of migrants to their countries of origin – is one of the most difficult parts to fit into the complex migration policy. “Without intending to be frivolous […] this does not work by filling a plane with immigrants and letting them go by parachute or filling a boat and returning them to the sea”, warns a senior police chief who watches in amazement at some proposals electoral “populists”.
The socialists are clear that the formula for a “regular, safe and orderly” migration – words repeated by the Minister of the Interior – requires collaboration and good relations with the African countries that are the origin or transit in the migratory routes. Neighboring Morocco, without going any further, which, although it also suffers from strong migratory pressure, collaborates closely with Spain in the fight against mafias and has strengthened the police presence on its kilometer-long Atlantic coasts. The PSOE bets in its program to “deepen” relations with Rabat, to the detriment of Algeria, which is not mentioned in the document.
The Popular Party is also positioned in the line of establishing joint teams between countries, from where they emphasize – “we will continue with the current model”, its program states – the research work in Niger led by Spain. Also, the popular advocates to strengthen the capacities in media, technology and coordination of the National Police and the Civil Guard in the integrated management of borders.
In Sumar, the focus is on rejections at the border, endorsed by the Constitutional Court. The so-called hot refunds that during the last legislature were the subject of a dispute between the Ministry of the Interior and the Unites Podemos party in the Government. Yolanda Díaz, precisely, promoted many of these criticisms; as in the more than 400 returns – according to the Ombudsman’s findings – that were carried out during the tragic jump over the fence in Melilla last summer. Sumar proposes to apply the transparency law to “put an end to bilateral border outsourcing agreements with countries that do not guarantee compliance with human rights”. The program does not specify which countries it refers to.
The antagonistic positions on the migration issue between the extremes is also evident in the closures they propose. Sumar is committed to eliminating internment centers for foreigners (CIE) because they “violate people’s rights”; while from Vox they want to close the centers for unaccompanied foreign minors – or “keep them away from the cities” – because they are a focus, they say, of crime.
