Spain earmarks €35 million for unaccompanied migrant children and defends regularisation policy

The Spanish government has declared the integration of migrant residents a national priority, emphasizing policies that facilitate their participation in employment, education and social services. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez defended the recent extraordinary regularisation of roughly half‑a‑million migrants, arguing that most beneficiaries are Latin Americans with strong ties to Spain and rejecting EU proposals for external deportation centres.

Several EU leaders, including Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, criticised the Spanish regularisation, warning it could create secondary migration flows across the bloc. Sánchez responded by highlighting the success of Spain’s model and its alignment with EU asylum and Dublin regulations.

In a separate announcement, Youth and Childhood Minister Sira Rego said the central government will distribute €35 million to autonomous regions that host the highest numbers of unaccompanied migrant minors. The funds will support the ongoing reform of the foreign nationals law, which has already transferred 2,000 minors from the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla to the mainland without incident. The Canary Islands will receive €4 million of the new allocation, adding to the €140 million already earmarked for the archipelago’s migrant‑accommodation system.