Brussels insists that Spain must take care of regularized immigrants who try to move through the EU

“Decisions to regularize the situation of third-country nationals in an irregular situation are competence of the member states“said the Immigration spokesperson, Guillaume Mercier, when asked about the Spanish case.

“That said, Member States must ensure that these decisions do not affect the correct application of the EU migration and asylum system,” he stressed.

“In particular, Member States should ensure that any person who receives a national residence permit and who is found in an irregular situation in another Member State, or who applies for asylum in another Member State, is returned to the Member State that issued the residence permit“the spokesperson insisted.

This responsibility is regulated in the return directive and in the asylum regulations of the European Union.

In the debate on Sánchez’s regularization in the European Parliament last Februarythe Commissioner for the Interior and Immigration, Magnus Brunner, has already made it clear that “a residence permit is not a blank check to move freely within the Union, and European rules must be respected.

“In the context of a regularization program in a Member State, if someone with a national residence permit finds themselves in an irregular situation elsewhere in the EU, or applies for asylum in another Member State, You must return to the country that issued the permit“Brunner said.

“This is evident and clear, and this is what we hope will also happen with the measures recently announced by Spain, as well as with other similar initiatives by the Member States,” stressed the Migration Commissioner.

In this sense, Brunner pointed out that the Sánchez Government must guarantee that its plans to regularize irregular migrants “do not have negative consequences in other parts of the Union.” “This is a general principle of the EU,” he concluded.

Before the plenary session of the European Parliament, the Austrian commissioner also defended that the priority must be to accelerate the deportations of irregular migrants, since currently the return rate barely reaches 20% in the EU as a whole.

“It is time to change this and ensure that, as a rule, irregular migrants leave the EU. Without this, our policies are not credible“he insisted.