Huge queues of migrants continue to snake through Spanish cities this week as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s socialist government opened the floodgates on its controversial mass regularization program. Applications for legal status and work permits kicked off last Thursday following cabinet approval, and the scenes unfolding in Barcelona, Zaragoza, Sevilla and beyond confirm the worst fears of those who warned this amnesty would break the system.
It is the direct result of the chaos already documented after Sánchez rammed through his plan to legalize half a million undocumented migrants already inside the country. As thousands swarmed consulates and offices demanding paperwork, the very public services Spaniards rely on are now buckling under the pressure.
In Barcelona, Pakistani migrants rushed the consulate for criminal record certificates required under the scheme.
SPAIN: Pakistani migrants are rushing to the consulate in Barcelona for their paperwork, as the government plans to regularize 500,000 illegals.Notice they are all military-aged men, no women or children. They will soon be able to move freely across Europe. This won’t end well.pic.twitter.com/tSepsIqY55
Miles de pakistaníes después de ser regularizados por Pedro Sánchez se van a la oficina de servicios sociales del Ayuntamiento de Barcelona?? para coger el certificado de vulnerabilidad y tener derecho a casa gratis y el IMVTodo esto pagado por ti por supuesto.pic.twitter.com/EWtILqPBcE
Footage from Zaragoza showed similar crowds overwhelming local offices:
???Footage from Spain's Zaragoza as thousands of migrants rush to be legalized.The VOX party: "Total collapse of the City Council in the face of the avalanche of illegal immigrants who want to take advantage of Sánchez's regularization."pic.twitter.com/OISJ1gsyXs
In Valencia the lines were massive:
?? Así son las kilométricas que colapsan el centro de Valencia por la regularización masiva de Sánchez.pic.twitter.com/SjyUctmL0I
In Sevilla, VOX candidate Manuel Gavira posted video of long lines outside city hall and delivered a stark warning: “These are the lines in Seville to manage mass regularization. What you see here today… tomorrow you’ll see it in the clinics, in social assistance, in housing, and in all public services. It’s called collapse. And it has already begun.”
Source: modernity
