Author
Short overview of the reception system
The coordination and management of the reception of asylum seekers falls under the responsibility of the State Secretary for Migration (Secretaría de Estado de Migraciones, SEM) of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration. The SEM also supervises and coordinates the Directorate General of Migration (Dirección General de Migraciones), the Directorate General for Humanitarian Assistance and for the Reception System of International Protection (Dirección General de Atención Humanitaria y del Sistema de Acogida de Protección Internacional) and the Directorate General for Migration Management (Dirección General de Gestión Migratoria).[1] The SEM is competent for developing the Governmental policy on foreigners, immigration and emigration. In addition, through the Directorate General for Humanitarian Assistance and for the Reception System of International Protection, it develops and manages the comprehensive system for reception and integration of asylum seekers, refugees, stateless person, persons with temporary protection, and beneficiaries of the subsidiary protection.
The Asylum Law provides that reception services shall be defined by way of Regulation.[2] Up until 2022, detailed rules on the functioning of the Spanish reception system were provided through a non-binding handbook,[3] as the Regulation implementing the Asylum Law was pending from 2009. On 29 March 2022, the Government adopted the Royal Decree 220/2022, approving the Regulation governing the international protection reception system.[4] The new Regulation entered into force on 31 March 2022. It provides that the 2021 Reception Handbook and its Annex (version 5.0) on the procedure on managing the international protection reception plan will be applicable in case certain rules are not developed and detailed by the same Regulation. The DGSAPTI, trough the General-Sub direction of Programs of International Protection, is working on a new version of the Reception Handbook (version 6.0) together with the NGOs participating in the asylum reception system. The new handbook was expected to be published and implemented in the course of 2024, but at the time of writing of this report it has not yet been published.[5]
In principle, applicants for international protection are granted reception conditions and thus referred to a shelter as soon as they apply for asylum. Nevertheless, there have been major shortcomings in the reception system in recent years, rendering the access to reception difficult in practice (e.g. waiting periods reaching up to 1 month) and resulting in homelessness in certain cases.
The duration of reception conditions (accommodation, assistance and financial support) should last 18 months, and may reach a maximum of 24 for vulnerable cases, following the exceptional authorisation by the competent authority. The reception system is currently divided into three phases: 1) initial assessment and referral; 2) reception; 3) autonomy.
On 15 December 2022, the SEM adopted an instruction detailing the requirements for accessing and staying in the international protection reception system.[6] Among other issues, the instruction foresees that the phase of initial assessment and referral, despite being part of the reception system, does not count while calculating the 18-month (or 24-month) period of stay, and that just the other two phases are taken into consideration for the calculation of the duration.
In July 2023 the Disciplinary Regime of the asylum reception system entered into force.[7]
The State Secretary for Migration of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration directly manages four reception facilities for asylum seekers, which are collective centres. In addition, 20 NGOs run reception centres for asylum seekers, through funds granted by the State Secretary for Migration. Many of these facilities are apartments. It has to be noted that in 2022 there has also been changes in funding of reception facilities managed by NGOs, with the provision of direct funding to certain organisations.[8]
In November 2023 the Spanish Ombudsperson suggested to the Government Delegation in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands) cancel a fine of 14,529€ that was addressed to the NGO ‘CEAR’ for allowing migrants accommodated in its facilities for the humanitarian assistance to enrol in the municipality register (empadronamiento) using the address of such centres.[9]
In February 2024, the Government reached an agreement with the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country to transfer to the latter the competence on the reception of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, as well as their integration.[10] In April, a Royal Decree officially established the transfer of competence.[11] Since 1 January 2025, the Basque Country started to manage the reception of asylum seekers, in collaboration with five NGOs (AccemRed Cross, Movimiento por la Paz – MPDL, CEAR, Nueva Vida and San Juan de Dios) and with a total budget of 2.4 million Euros.[12]
The Autonomous Community of Cataluña demanded to be authorised to carry out a similar regional management.[13]
Following a proposal made by the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, in July 2023 the Council of Ministers approved the funding of EUR 1.5 million until 2026 to the Spanish Olympic Committee with the aim of promoting sports within the reception systems for migrants and refugees.[14]
In August 2024, the Minister of Inclusion increased up to 18 million Euros the budget allocated to the asylum reception system from September to the end of December 2024.[15]
In October, the Government re-launched the plan to increase the number of asylum reception places that was announced in 2023 by the previous Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, which foresaw the creation of 5,700 new reception places with an allocated budget of 176 million euros. The plan was blocked due to the opposition of certain municipalities (led by the right-wing parties Partido Popular and Vox) to the construction of asylum reception facilities in their territories.[16]
In November, the Government decided to increase with an additional €319 million the budget allocated for the asylum reception system and the humanitarian assistance programs for 2025, reaching a total amount of €979.1 million.[17]
Following a parliamentary request made by Junts, the Government informed in December that it counts with a total of 45,185 reception places in Spanish mainland, with 29,211 within the asylum reception system, and 15,974 for the humanitarian assistance of migrants (“Programa de atención humanitaria a inmigrantes – PAHI”).[18]
[1] Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones, Secretaría de Estado de Migraciones’, available here.
[2] Articles 30(2) and 31(1) Asylum Law.
[3] The first version of the Reception Handbook was published in January 2016 and other four versions were published in the following years. Please refer to previous updates of this report for more information on this regard.
[4] Boletín Oficial del Estado, ‘Real Decreto 220/2022, de 29 de marzo, por el que se aprueba el Reglamento por el que se regula el sistema de acogida en materia de protección internacional’, available here.
[5] Information provided by Accem’s reception service in March 2024 and in February 2025.
[6] Migrar con Derechos, ‘Instrucción SEM de 15 de diciembre de 2022. Acceso y permanencia sistema acogida protección internacional’, 15 December 2022, available here.
[7] Boletín Oficial del Estao, ‘Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones – Orden ISM/922/2023, de 6 de julio, por la que se desarrolla el régimen disciplinario del sistema de acogida en materia de protección internacional’, 3 August 2023, available here.
[8] Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguirdad Social y Migraciones, ‘Subvenciones de concesión directa en el área de protección internacional, aprobadas por el Real Decreto 590/2022, de 19 de julio’, 19 July 2022, available here; Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguirdad Social y Migraciones, ‘Real Decreto 1059/2022, de 27 de diciembre, por el que se modifica el Real Decreto 590/2022, de 19 de julio, por el que se regula la concesión directa de subvenciones a determinadas entidades para la financiación del Sistema de Acogida de Protección Internacional’, 28 December 2022, available here; Ministerio De Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones, ‘Orden ISM/535/2024, de 29 de mayo, por la que se modifica la Orden ISM/680/2022, de 19 de julio, por la que se desarrolla la gestión del sistema de acogida de protección internacional mediante acción concertada’, 29 May 2024, available here.
[9] EFE, ‘El Defensor pide retirar una multa a CEAR por empadronar a migrantes en centros de acogida’, 29 November 2023, available here.
[10] El País, ‘El Gobierno cierra un acuerdo con el País Vasco para traspasar las políticas de integración de inmigrantes’, 28 February 2024, available here; Público, ‘El Gobierno acuerda con Euskadi el traspaso del sistema de acogida de personas migrantes’, 28 February 2024, available here; RTVE, ‘Euskadi asume las competencias de Cercanías, homologación de títulos extranjeros y acogida de refugiados’, 11 March 2024, available here.
[11] Boletín Oficial del Estado, ‘Ministerio de Política Territorial y Memoria Democrática – Real Decreto 367/2024, de 9 de abril, de ampliación de los servicios del Estado traspasados a la Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco por el Real Decreto 2768/1980, de 26 de septiembre, en materia de Sanidad, Servicios y Asistencia Sociales (fase de autonomía del sistema de protección internacional)’, 19 April 2024, available here.
[12] Europa Press, ‘Euskadi asumirá el 1 de enero la gestión de proceso de acogida de migrantes beneficiarios de protección internacional’, 30 december 2024, available here; Euskadi.eus, ‘La gestión de la fase de autonomía del sistema de acogida refuerza el modelo vasco de acogida y permite diseñar de una manera integral los procesos de inclusión de las personas beneficiarias de la protección internacional y asilo’, 30 December 2024, available here.
[13] La Vanguardia, ‘Catalunya quiere participar en la gestión de la acogida de refugiados’, 9 December 2024, available here.
[14] Europa Press, ‘Aprobada una subvención al COE de 1,5 millones para favorecer el deporte en los centros de acogida’, 4 July 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/yc3truz2.
[15] La Moncloa, ‘Inclusión amplía la partida prevista para el sistema de protección internacional en 18 millones’, 22 August 2024, available here.
[16] The Objective, ‘El Gobierno reactiva su plan para acoger 5.800 nuevos refugiados y que costará 176 millones’, 20 October 2024, available here.
[17] El Dirario, ‘El Gobierno central amplía en 319,2 millones su previsión de gasto en 2025 para atender a migrantes’, 12 November 2024, available here.
[18] Europa Press, ‘45.000 plazas para migrantes entre el sistema de acogida y el programa de atención humanitaria’, 14 December 2024, available here.