At the beginning of the year, the PSOE and Podemos parties agreed on a mass regularization of migrants to grant legal status to half a million people already living in Spain. They did so by drafting immigration regulations to avoid having to go through Congress, where they would have struggled to secure a majority to pass them. However, the PP has found a loophole to try to influence the Senate through the law on repeat offenses, promoted by Junts and approved last week in the upper house. The PP pushed for an amendment to toughen the conditions for the regularization of migrants, and, as ARA has learned, Junts will vote in favor this Thursday in the final vote in Congress. The regularization will still go ahead, but controls for obtaining a residence permit will be increased.

Fifty-three people, including two babies, have died or are missing following the shipwreck of a dinghy off the coast of Libya on Friday. Of the 55 migrants on board, only two survived, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Monday. The inflatable boat, the organization explained, capsized north of Zuwara, Libya, on Friday, and only two Nigerian women were rescued in a rescue operation led by Libyan agencies. According to the survivors' testimony collected by the IOM, several African migrants and refugees set sail from the town of Az-Zawiyah late on February 5, and six hours later, the boat began to flood and capsized. The tragedy raises the number of victims on this route to at least 484 in 2026, just in the first five weeks of the year. But it is believed that there may have been more shipwrecks that went unnoticed due to the extreme weather conditions of recent weeks. "These repeated incidents highlight the persistent and deadly risks faced by migrants and refugees attempting the perilous crossing," the organization reflected in a statement. These 484 deaths are in addition to more than 1,300 migrants who disappeared in the central Mediterranean in 2025, according to official data from the same organization. The IOM also emphasizes in the same statement that stronger international cooperation and protection-focused responses are needed to tackle criminal trafficking networks that exploit the vulnerability of migrants and those at risk, and to save lives. Outsourcing border control

For years the European Union has opted to transfer control of its external borders to third countries. through multi-million dollar agreements to prevent or limit the passage of migrantsOne of them is Libya, a failed state besieged by mafias that traffic migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe via the central Mediterranean route. Although the flow of migrants into EU territory originates from the eastern Mediterranean has been reduced this 2025Departures from Libya have increased significantly. The majority, a total of 66,000 people from Libya, have entered the European Union through Italy. Several NGOs and international organizations have repeatedly denounced the situation of migrants and refugees in Libya. They report that the Libyan coast guard, with the support of the EU and armed groups, intercepts thousands of migrants at sea and forcibly returns them to detention centers in Libya. There, they are subjected to torture, sexual violence, and forced labor. According to Amnesty International, thousands of migrants were forcibly expelled to neighboring countries without any trial or the possibility of seeking asylum.

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The process that the Spanish government has put in place regularize the status of migrants living in Spain irregularly. This has led to a flood of claims, often false, circulating on social media. These claims are often fueled by... influencers Originating from the far-right sphere, these claims aim to create public opinion against regularization, asserting that migrants who benefit will place more pressure on social services, or that the entire process is designed to electorally benefit the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party). This confusion has flooded social media with truths, lies, and often statements that are neither entirely true nor entirely false. This is a review of many of the questions left unanswered by the process, in a socially and politically complex matter.

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The NGO Caminando Fronteras has released its annual tally of deaths occurring while attempting to reach Spanish shores and has confirmed a significant increase in shipwrecks of boats trying to reach the Balearic Islands from Algeria. Of the 3,090 deaths recorded, a third (1,037) occurred on this route, which departs from North Africa towards Formentera or Ibiza, islands known for their tourist appeal. The contrast of migrants arriving on beaches packed with tourists, in what for them represents their dream destination, is one of the images that best encapsulates the contradictions of the modern world. The majority of fatalities (1,906) continue to occur on the route from Africa to the Canary Islands, although this year there has been a significant decrease compared to last year. It should be noted that 2014 was a record year, when more than 10,000 people drowned trying to reach Spanish shores. According to the latest figures from the Ministry of the Interior, irregular migrant arrivals to Spain fell by 40.4% compared to 2014, with an even steeper decline in the Canary Islands, where it reached 59.9%. However, we cannot ignore such a painful reality, even though Europe has often believed that the best way to avoid encouraging these journeys is to abandon these people to their fate. We recall that high-seas rescue initiatives like the one carried out by the Catalan NGO Open Arms are condemned by the far right, from Salvini to Vox. Throughout its history, the ARA has documented some of these rescue operations with journalist Cristina Mas and photographer Xavier Bertral, and the conclusion is always the same: it's naive to think that people won't risk their lives to reach Europe by putting themselves in the hands of criminal gangs when they see no future, no opportunities, in their homeland.

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The Civil Guard, in collaboration with the Mossos d'Esquadra (Spanish police), the National Police, and the Local Police, launched a joint major operation against street vendors in Roses this Monday morning. A total of around 250 police officers participated in one of the largest operations carried out so far in the municipality.

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"Many of the migrants crossing the English Channel are fleeing countries at war. If we don't address the root causes, the dangerous routes will continue." With these words, Christa Rottensteiner, head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) mission in the United Kingdom, summarized last week what most specialists also maintain: deterrent migration policies, such as those currently being promoted by London and Paris, will be of little use if the root causes of unregulated migration are not addressed. This is the same conclusion reached by Matilde Rosina, a migration researcher at Brunel University London, who tells ARA: "Deterrent policies are often ineffective. Furthermore, they do not address the root causes of migration, such as poverty, conflict, and corruption."

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Tradition, understood in the sense of custom that prevails from generation to generation, is easy or difficult to maintain depending on the will of the generation. There are traditions—much of the craft, for example—that unfortunately are being lost despite individual efforts of resistance and the little value placed on them. On the other hand, more festive and popular traditions are maintained strongly thanks to broad collective support. The case of the public's refusal to lose My grandfather The repertoire of habanera singing demonstrated how difficult it is to change what is already considered the natural order of things, rather than a tradition. This, and the fact that it's summer, a traditional time of year when there are no topics to debate, and, just between you and me, how lazy to have to talk about prostitution and colonialism now. Let the rum burn, then.

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The Spanish government has already decided where and with what resources the 3,975 unaccompanied foreign minors currently in the Canary Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla awaiting a directive will be relocated. As expected, neither Catalonia nor the Basque Country will be part of this regional distribution due to "the reception efforts made so far." Instead, the majority of these young people will be relocated to Andalusia (677), Madrid (647), and the Valencian Community (571), according to sources from the Ministry of Youth and Children.

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There are times when life accelerates and goes crazy. This happened last year to Abou Sangaré, a Guinean migrant who arrived in France at the age of 16 after crossing Mali, Algeria, Libya, the Mediterranean, and Italy. Based in Amiens, in northern France, Sangaré was chosen to play an undocumented migrant, like himself, in the film. The story of Souleymane, which premiered at Cannes in May 2024, where his performance was awarded Best in the Un Certain Regard section. He still had no roles, but he was hailed like a star. "Canes was a very stressful experience for me," the actor explains via video call. "Presenting the film in front of 900 people isn't something I usually do, and I got very nervous. And when everyone started applauding afterwards, it was like landing in another world."

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A year ago, Junts (Juntos) blocked the reform of the immigration law to make it mandatory for regional governments to accept unaccompanied minor migrants, who mainly arrive in the Canary Islands. The Spanish government, which has already reached an agreement with Junts to delegate immigration powers to the Generalitat (Catalan government), knew who it would convince, and this Tuesday's decision was made clear by the royal decree approved by the Council of Ministers after the meeting. days of negotiationsTogether, they announced the agreement before the Moncloa Palace and emphasized that the efforts made so far in welcoming some autonomous regions would be taken into account: Catalonia, one of the regions that has received the most minors, will now have to take in between 20 and 30, while more than 700 will arrive in Madrid.

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The debate on the impact of recent immigration in Catalonia is making its way beyond the four paternalistic and well-intentioned clichés of recent times. That so far this century the registered population has grown by twenty-four percent to more than eight million, that those born outside Catalonia are nearly four out of ten residents or that in the last year, in the intense transit of people arriving and leaving, it has become more relevant that social society is once again the one that talks most about the social variable.

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The debate on the impact of recent immigration in Catalonia is making its way beyond the four paternalistic and well-intentioned clichés of recent times. That so far this century the registered population has grown by twenty-four percent to more than eight million, that those born outside Catalonia are nearly four out of ten residents or that in the last year, in the intense transit of people arriving and leaving, it has become more relevant that social society is once again the one that talks most about the social variable.

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The much-hyped Brexit slogan "Let's take back control of our borders" already has another political consequence. With the beginning of the processing this week of the nationality and borders bill, the United Kingdom is placed "outside the international legality" and breaks the pact signed in 1951 of the United Nations refugee convention. This is the opinion of Leonie Ansems de Vries, professor of international relations and chair of the Migration Research Group at King's College London, who considers the legal proposal that Home Secretary Priti Patel has brought to Parliament to be "a counterproductive response to forced migration and represents a form of violence that undermines international law".

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On a street in the industrial estate next to the port of Ceuta, Ridan, 16, stops us and shows us his mobile phone with a cracked screen and, with gestures, makes us understand that it has no battery. "Mom", he says, pointing to the phone. We leave him ours to call home, after four days wandering lost in the streets of Ceuta without knowing what to do or where to go, and sleeping on the breakwater of the beach. His father answers instantly, and the conversation barely lasts five minutes. "Dad, I heard that the border was open and I've gone to Ceuta. You and mum don't have a job and we are many brothers and sisters and we couldn't do anything to get out of this crisis that affects so many people. Now I will try to go up to the Peninsula. If I had wanted to steal or commit a crime I would have stayed in Tetuan. I'm going to get the papers and help the whole family", he tells them. The father tells him to take care of himself, to be a man and not to mix with "bad company". The mother does not get on the phone, she can only be heard crying.

]]> The police pressure at the border and desperation forces migrants to seek new ways. The Spanish police has found five men hidden in containers of glass and toxic ash which was being taken to a recycling plant. The men were trying to reach the Peninsula from the port of Melilla, where they had managed to circumvent security to enter the free zone of the enclosure and sneak into the area of waste that is sent to mainland Spain to be treated.

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