Author
The three-phase reception and integration process is available for all persons who ask for asylum, even in the case they are granted with international or subsidiary protection during the 18-month period. In case a person receives a negative response during the process, usually the person is allowed to complete at least the first period within the reception phase. In any case, the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration must give permission for the rejected applicant to continue the on-going phase and the following ones, also accessing financial support foreseen within the second and third phases. It should however be noted that usually applicants receive their asylum decision after 1 year or more from the moment of the asylum claim.
Therefore, beneficiaries follow the same process as described in Reception Conditions: Criteria and Restrictions. They are hosted within the asylum reception centres during the first 6 months. The typologies of reception places vary depending on the institution or entity that manages it: the system relies on places within big reception centres and apartments, some reception places are in urban neighbourhoods while other are located in rural areas. The different types of available accommodation also differ from the point of view of provided services and spaces.
After this first phase of accommodation inside the reception system, beneficiaries are granted financial support to help them pay rent in private accommodation. Due to the rigidity which characterises the Spanish three-phase reception process, they must complete their stay inside the reception places in order to have access to the following foreseen financial support for private housing, also because the participation to initial integration activities developed during the first reception phase is considered is well evaluated and relevant at the time of asking for other financial support available in the last 2 phases.
This factor obviously causes obstacles for those beneficiaries that can either pay their own housing since the beginning or for those who have relatives or personal contacts that can host them. In case they decide to go and live by themselves, they would be renouncing to the entire assistance and support foreseen under the reception system.
The lack of social housing alternatives, the insufficient financial support allocated for rent expenses, high requirements (i.e. payslips, high quantities for deposit, etc.) and criteria in rental contracts and discrimination exposes many beneficiaries of protection to economic vulnerability and in some cases leads to destitution.[1] Although many NGOs who work with refugees and asylum seekers during the first phase try to mediate between refugees and house holders at the time they start looking for private housing, there is no specialised agency or intermediate service helping beneficiaries to find a home. Even in cases in which NGOs act as intermediaries, asylum seekers face serious discrimination in renting apartments. Some of them face homelessness and are accommodated in homeless shelters.[2] CEAR Euskadi denounced the discrimination that asylum seekers face in renting flats, and that 7 out of 10 real estate-agencies admit implementing explicit forms of discrimination, while the other 3 apply more subtle forms of it.[3]
Such challenges continued in 2024 and the beginning of 2025.[4] The lack of houses for rent and high prices in certain cities are an impediment to the integration of refugees. Similarly, the lack of sufficient public housing for persons at risk of exclusion has been described as another barrier that asylum seekers and refugees face in Spain. In addition, discrimination by landlords and neighbours continued to represent the main obstacle for accessing housing.[5]
In February 2025, around 60 people in the possible process of being evicted from the informal settlement of Níjar (Almería) and looking for an apartment to rent, denounced that nobody wants to rent a flat to a Moroccan migrant.[6]
Following the Government’s announcement of an upcoming law on the right to a state-sponsored housing, around 50 stakeholders among NGOs, trade unions, and other groups joined to promote the “Initiative for a Law guaranteeing the Right to Housing”.[7] The law was approved in May 2023.[8] Among its objectives, it aims at supporting groups facing significant challenges in accessing housing and at fostering the use of public housing.
Autonomous Communities have (or should put in place) programs for the assistance to the autonomous and independent life of young adults (some of these programs start when they are 17 until the age of 21 or 24). Accem manages some of them in different autonomous communities (i.e. Castilla La Mancha, Murcia, Aragón).
In December 2024, the Municipality of Alcobendas (Madrid) started a collaboration with the asylum reception centre located in the city, with the aim of informing and providing tools to asylum seekers for improving their physical and psychological conditions, as well as the quality of their life.[9]
A report published in March 2025 by the organization Provivienda continues to highlight the discrimination faced by migrants and refugees in accessing rental housing, also addressing the discrimination against migrants carried out by estate agencies..[10]
[1] Provivienda, ‘Una casa como refugio: itinerarios residenciales de las personas solicitantes de protección internacional en Madrid y Vigo’, 28 October 2019, available at: https://cutt.ly/BtR8WUN.
[2] El País, ‘La red de albergues de Madrid deja en la calle a familias con niños’, 18 November 2018, available at: https://bit.ly/2PAw8Nb; Público, ‘Varios solicitantes de asilo denuncian que España les deja fuera del sistema de acogida’, 16 May 2018, available at: https://bit.ly/2AUvKQr.
[3] Cadena Ser, ‘Siete de cada diez inmobiliarias admiten implementar formas explicitas de discriminación’, 31 October 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3PF63H3.
[4] Diario de Burgos, ‘Un mercado de la vivienda hostil expulsa al migrante’, 20 March 2025, available here.
[5] CEAR, ‘INFORME 2024. Las personas refugiadas en España y Europa’, June 2024, p. 119, available here.
[6] ABC, ‘”Nadie quiere alquilar a un marroquí”: la realidad de los migrantes a desalojar en Níjar’, 21 February 2025, available here.
[7] UGT, UGT promueve la Iniciativa por una ley que garantice el derecho a la vivienda, 17 February 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3sCBTKG; Afectados por la Hipoteca, Manifiesto de la Iniciativa por una Ley que garantice el Derecho a la Vivienda, 18 February 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/2XPGxK7.
[8] La Moncloa, ‘Ley de vivienda: ¿qué regula y cómo funciona?’, 25 May 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/2u3ps9p5.
[9] Cadena Ser, ‘El Ayuntamiento de Alcobendas colabora con el CAPI por la salud de las personas refugiadas’, 18 December 2024, available here.
[10] Provivienda, ‘¿Se alquila?(2). Racismo y segregación en el alquiler de vivienda’, March 2025, available here.