Spain’s Correos state postal office processed mass amnesty applications for illegal migrants without requiring arrivals to prove they have no criminal record — one of the allegedly indispensable requirements listed by the leftist government in Madrid.
Correos‘ offices across Spain are being used by the Spanish socialist government in its ongoing process to grant mass amnesty to half a million illegal migrants, with over 370 Correos locations currently serving as amnesty application reception centres per the Spanish Inclusion Ministry.
The Spanish postal service, on its official website, explicitly states that illegal migrants seeking to benefit from the amnesty must present proof that they were present in Spain before January 1, 2026, and that they have remained in the country for at least 5 months at the time of the application. Additionally, they must also demonstrate that they have no criminal record and do not pose a threat to public order, public safety, or public health.
Spanish newspaper ABC reports that it obtained a copy of a Correos operational manual containing guidelines for processing amnesty requests. According to ABC, the manual, which was used at least up until last Tuesday, contains “errors affecting key information” in the processing of migrants’ applications, and does not instruct workers to request clean criminal records from prospective amnesty beneficiaries.
“In that regard, employees of the public company have been unable to perform their duties fully, which may have resulted in some foreign nationals submitting incomplete documentation,” ABC wrote.
Per the report, the “mistake” of omitting the mandatory criminal records certification could have affected hundreds of the some 20,000 amnesty applications received by Spanish authorities to date. The manual has since reportedly been amended to correct the omission and now includes new provisions allowing migrants to present “valid or expired” verifiable identification documents.
Unnamed Correos workers told the newspaper that offices without adequate resources have been chosen for amnesty processing, a task they must carry out in addition to their normal postal service duties, which has forced them to endure stress and pressure over “fears of making a mistake.”
One source told ABC that, in some instances, small post offices with just three service counters have been chosen as processing centres. The Correos bureaucracy had planned for each migrant’s amnesty request to take 20 minutes to process, but sources say this has proven grossly inadequate, and it often takes far longer.
“Couldn’t we have run tests to estimate the time needed with the resources we have?” one of the unnamed workers told ABC.
The same source detailed that on the first day, their office worked with an error-ridden manual and incomplete training, resulting in processing times of about 90 minutes per person, which led many migrants to leave.
Several police force unions in Spain had already raised alarms about the post office problems, branding the broader mass amnesty decree as a “mistake.” Members of Spain’s Unified Police Union (SUP) have reportedly affirmed that officials currently in charge of the amnesty process have no past experience and lack the training comparable to that of SUP agents to carry out such a task.
Spanish outlets reported last week that the sheer amount of illegal migrants seeking to receive amnesty at post office counters has collapsed the Spanish postal service — an outcome that Correos workers warned Spanish authorities of as a possibility back in March. In response, the Spanish government announced on Monday that it will extend the amnesty submission timeframe from 20 to 30 minutes.
The Spanish government is expected to receive mass amnesty applications until June 30, with the eventual aim of granting legal residence status, work permits, and other benefits to half a million illegal migrants, despite a majority of Spanish nationals and lawmakers expressing fierce rejection of the plan. Similarly, EU politicians and officials have raised concerns over the inevitable consequences of a country within an open borders union unilaterally declaring its own frontiers effectively open.
The amnesty — that Spain officially calls a regularisation of migrants — has seen long queues forming across the country as illegals wait to have their paperwork made official.
Last week, Spain’s Supreme Court accepted an appeal from Madrid’s local government seeking to stop the mass amnesty process, but it has yet to issue a ruling at press time.
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