Hundreds queue as Barcelona opens new site for migrant regularisation

Around 200 people queued at Barcelona's Fira de Montjuïc exhibition hall on Wednesday morning to access Spain's migrant regularisation scheme, with some waiting since as early as 6am, according to those in line.

Pavilion 2 of the venue opened at 10am to help streamline procedures, allowing applicants to request appointments and time slots for processing residency applications, as well as obtain information about the scheme.

From next week, the process will also be extended to residents of Barcelona who are not officially registered on the municipal census, with applicants required to provide documentation proving their continued presence in the city.

These procedures will also be handled at the Fira de Montjuïc site.

The city council has described the rollout as 'phase two' of the migrant regularisation process.

Regularisation

In April, Spain opened an extraordinary migrant regularisation process, giving an estimated half a million people the chance to formalize their legal status. In Catalonia, it's expected that up to 150,000 people could benefit from the initiative, open until the end of June.

Since the process opened, offices in Barcelona to process applications have been inundated, with huge queues forming that stretch for numerous blocks.

Since the scheme began, the council has issued 17,000 vulnerability reports – 10,000 online and 7,000 in person – as well as 94,000 residency registration certificates.

The measures were announced on Tuesday by deputy mayor Raquel Gil, social rights manager Marta Clari and social action commissioner Sonia Fuertes at a press conference at City Hall.

From Thursday onwards, the new venue will operate from 8am to 10pm. Gil said the aim is to "de-escalate" demand at citizen service offices (OAC) and to "improve waiting times and quality of service."

City officials hope the new site will ease pressure after queues of up to one kilometre formed outside an OAC Office in Plaça Sant Miquel.

The council had previously set up four support points for migrant regularisation. The latest opened on April 28 on Carrer Miquel Bleach, in the Hostafrancs neighbourhood, joining three existing sites: the immigrant support service SAIER on Carrer Tarragona and two citizen service offices at Sant Miquel and Monumental.

Gil added that from May 15 the city aims to centralise procedures at the Montjuïc venue, the SAIER office on Carrer Tarragona and the office in Hostafrancs, allowing standard services to resume at other citizen service offices. 

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