Overview of the main changes since the previous report update

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The last version of this report was updated in May 2025.

International protection

• Key asylum statistics: A total of 140,396 persons applied for international protection in Spain in 2025. Venezuela, Mali, Colombia, Peru, and Senegal were the top five nationalities of applicants. Among them, 58.73% were men, while 41.27% were women. As regards decision making at first instance, a total of 68,321 applications were rejected, while refugee status was granted to 7,838 persons, subsidiary protection to 10,103 persons and 57,333 were granted protection for humanitarian reasons. The recognition rate for international protection remained low, with only around 12.42% of cases being recognised refugee status or subsidiary protection. It should however be highlighted that the overall recognition rate reaches almost the 52.13% if decisions granting humanitarian protection are taken into account. The top 5 countries of persons granted any form of international protection (refugee status and subsidiary protection) in 2025 were Mali, Nicaragua, Colombia, Palestine, and Afghanistan. At the end of the year, 97,257 applications were still pending at first instance. In 2025, UNHCR reported that asylum applications from women and girls have tripled in the last three years in Spain. Concretely, Spain has granted refugee status on gender grounds to 1,588 women and girls, corresponding to 65% of the total number of women and girls who have been granted asylum in 2025.

Asylum procedure

• Access to territory and pushbacks: In 2025, 36,775 migrants reached Spain by land and sea, which represents a decrease of 42.6% compared to 64,019 arrivals in 2024. Most arrivals were by sea (32,925) and the main route for sea arrivals were the Canary Islands, with 17,788 persons who reached the archipelago by sea in 2025.
• Situation on the Canary Islands and in the Mediterranean: The NGO Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) estimates that 3,090 persons died while reaching Spain in 2025, including 1,906 who lost their life on the Canary route. It further reported that 192 of victims were women, 437 were children, and that a total of 70 vessels disappeared with those 3,090 persons on board. The persons who died belonged to 30 different nationalities. According to IOM’s figures, a total of 424 persons died in the Atlantic route, and 270 in the Western Mediterranean route.
• Delays in the appointments for registering the asylum application: During 2025, asylum seekers continued to face many challenges and long waiting times to obtain an appointment to express their intention to apply for asylum, and to formalise the application, mainly due to a lack of appropriate resources. In 2025, UNHCR continued to observe long delays in accessing the asylum procedure throughout the year, often exceeding three months, depending on the location. Despite efforts by the authorities, UNHCR continued to note the need for the establishment of a uniform system at the national level to ensure access to a procedure that is efficient, accessible, secure and sensitive to all individuals seeking asylum in Spain. UNHCR also observed that challenges to accessing the asylum procedure continued to negatively affect the rights of asylum seekers – in particular access to reception – leaving them at risk, including individuals with specific needs.

Reception conditions

• Relocation of unaccompanied migrant children (UAMs): In March 2025, the Government finally approved the compulsory distribution of 4,400 UAMs from the Canary Islands to other Autonomous Communities. Different organisations welcomed the agreement and called for the necessity to guarantee high standards for reception and assistance to UAMs. Some Autonomous Communities expressed their intention to challenge the decree adopted for the distribution. At the end of June, the Ministry of Youth and Childhood presented the plan for the distribution of about 4,000 UAMs from Ceuta, Melilla and the Canary Islands among the different Autonomous Communities. In the initial plan, Andalucía, Madrid and the Comunitat Valenciana were the Communities expected to receive half of the children transferred (exactly a total of 1,895 children). On 22 July, the Council of Ministers adopted Royal Decree 658/2025 establishing the rules, procedure and measures to relocate UAMs from places declared to be in a state of extraordinary migratory contingency (currently, Ceuta, Melilla and the Canary Islands) to other Autonomous Communities. By the end of January 2026, a total of 877 UAMs had been relocated.

• The situation of asylum-seeking unaccompanied children: In May 2025, the Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) issued a landmark ruling affirming that unaccompanied minors (UAMs) who apply for asylum are entitled to access and remain within the asylum reception system. This means they should not be placed in the general facilities for UAMs or in shelters for abandoned children. The case stemmed from the situation of approximately 1,000 UAMs who had applied for asylum in the Canary Islands. The ruling compelled the central government – responsible for the reception conditions of asylum applicants – to take responsibility for these minors and provide a solution within 10 days. The Government’s initial plan to appeal the decision changed. The UNHCR warned that at least the 55% of the UAMs arriving to the Canary Islands are in need of international protection and requested the government to prioritise their asylum applications in the decision-making process. The Minister of Youth and Childhood informed that the Government is working with the EUAA in order to train professionals of the child protection system also on asylum issues. By the end of December 2025, 410 UAMs asylum applicants have been transferred to the asylum reception facilities in mainland, according to data released by the government of the Canary Islands.

Detention of asylum seekers

• Opening of a new CIE in Algeciras: A new migrant detention centre was opened in November 2025 in Algeciras. The facility has a capacity of 507 places, has costed €22 million and its construction took 10 years. In December, around 20 migrants were detained in the new facility. In February 2026, it was denounced that the centre operated without legal authorisation for three months. For this purpose, a group of organisations lodged a complaint with the Ombudsperson regarding the improper use of the CIE, and especially the illegality of the deprivation of liberty of migrants detained there before the proper authorisation for the opening.

Content of international protection

• Access to rights: Asylum seekers, migrants and refugees continued to face challenges in accessing rights, especially housing, employment, and financial services, partially due to discriminatory practices. Unaccompanied migrant children and LGTBIQ+ persons continued to face social discrimination.
• Regularisation of undocumented migrants: In January 2026, the government opened to public consultation the draft text of the extraordinary regularisation measures to integrate foreign nationals already in Spain, with the aim of collecting inputs from different stakeholders before its final adoption. The aim is to provide an immediate and guaranteed response to the situation of hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals who are already in Spain. The authorisation granted will be for residence and to work in any sector and throughout the national territory. According to the proposal, foreign nationals who are in Spain and arrived before 31 December 2025 can apply for regularisation. Applications must be submitted before 30 June 2026. It will be essential not to have a criminal record in Spain or in the countries where the foreign national has resided during the last five years, not to be prohibited from entering Spanish territory, and to pay the corresponding administrative fee (the amount is still to be determined). The measure provides for two routes to regularisation. The first is regularisation due to exceptional circumstances, which is considered the general route. In this case, in addition to meeting the common requirements, it will be necessary to prove at least five months of continuous residence in Spain at the time of application. In addition, at least one of the following conditions must also be met: having worked in Spain or presenting an employment contract; living with immediate family members, such as school-age children, adult children who are dependent due to health or disability reasons, or first-degree ascendants; or being in a situation of vulnerability as certified by social services or third sector organisations. Irregular administrative status itself is understood to be a situation of vulnerability. The second route is aimed at applicants for international protection who have submitted their application before 31 December 2025. In this case, they must meet the general requirements, but they are not required to prove the additional circumstances provided for in the general route.[1] Applications are expected to be submitted in early April 2026, once the mandatory procedures for processing the Royal Decree have been completed. Different organisations and migrant groups celebrated the initiative.

Temporary protection

The information given hereafter constitutes a short summary of the Spain Report on Temporary

Protection, for further information, see Annex on Temporary Protection.

Temporary protection procedure

• Key statistics on temporary protection: In 2025, the Asylum Office granted temporary protection to 30,628 persons fleeing from Ukraine. Since the outbreak of the war until the end of February 2025, Spain has granted temporary protection to 236,570 persons fleeing from Ukraine.

Reception

• Attempts to close the CREADE in Pozuelo (Madrid): In July 2025, the Municipality of Pozuelo (Madrid) ordered to close the Emergency and Referral Centre (CREADE, which was specifically created for the reception of persons fleeing Ukraine just after the outbreak of the war) due to the lack of a license for the accommodation of persons. It seemed that the decision was due to the possible accommodation of unaccompanied migrant children at the centre from Sub-Saharan countries. The centre remains open at the time of writing of this report, as the competent judge stopped its closure in January 2026. The Municipality of Madrid informed that it would appeal the decision.

Content of temporary protection

• Extension of validity: An order issued in February 2026 extended the validity of residence permits granted to beneficiaries of temporary protection until 4 March 2027.
• Residence permits: The permits granted until 31 December 2025 were 338,576.
• Access to asylum: In 2024, 103 Ukrainians (58 men and 45 women) applied for international protection. During the same year, just 2 Ukrainians (1 man and 1 woman) were granted the refugee status, while 71 Ukrainians (38 men and 33 women) were granted subsidiary protection. No Ukrainian national was granted a stay or residence permit based on humanitarian reasons.
• Access to job market: According to available data, 35,647 beneficiaries of temporary protection were working as of 31 December 2025, mainly in the following labour sectors: hospitality (5,633 persons), construction (6,052 persons), wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (4,048 persons), and information and communications (3,733 persons).
• Funding: Since the outbreak of the war until February 2025, Spain allocated more than €1,530 million to support persons fleeing from Ukraine.

[1] Accem, ‘Regularización 2026: información práctica para personas migrantes en España’, 18 February 2026, available here; The Objective, ‘Miles de extranjeros con el asilo denegado por España podrán ser regularizados ahora’, 9 February 2026, available here; El País, ‘El gran dilema de los solicitantes de asilo político ante la regularización del Gobierno, 29.1.26, available here.