The Diplomat
The Spanish government has approved the expansion of its National Resettlement Programme (NRP) through a complementary channel to authorise the arrival of refugees, preferably from Central and South America, whose profile and integration capacity make them eligible for employment in Spain.
This extension of the resettlement plan, approved at the last Council of Ministers, is part of the agreement reached by the United States, Canada and Spain to identify, from among migrants from Central and South America seeking to reach the first of these countries, those who may be eligible for one of the regular migration channels to the other two, such as international protection or work and residence permits.
The United States, Canada and Spain issued a joint statement expressing their willingness to deepen their commitment to promote safe, orderly, regular and humanitarian-based migration from Latin America.
The agreement reached aims to expand opportunities for regular labour migration by strengthening coordination across governments to fairly and ethically recruit, screen and support eligible workers for employment abroad and increase protection of their rights.
In addition, the United States will establish regional centres — managed with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) — in several Central and South American countries to promote “regular, orderly and safe migration”.
In addition, the Spanish Council of Ministers approved the signing ‘ad referendum’ of the agreement between Spain and Guatemala on the regulation and organisation of migratory labour flows between the two states.
Since mid-2021, the Guatemalan authorities have expressed their interest in signing a circular migration agreement with Spain and in the framework of the visit to Spain of the Guatemalan Minister of Foreign Affairs, the signing took place ‘ad-referendum’ in Madrid on 18 January 2023. The agreement will be submitted to the Cortes Generales and authorises the expression of Spain’s consent to be bound by the agreement.
In addition to Guatemala, Spain has signed migration-related agreements with the Dominican Republic (2001), Ecuador (2001), Colombia (2001) and Honduras (2021) and has already launched several circular migration programmes, which have allowed
In addition to these bilateral agreements, Spain has developed a programme for highly skilled workers that allowed the arrival in Spain of 3,700 people from Colombia and Central American countries in 2022.
Between 2019 and 2022, Spain received more than 300,000 asylum applications from Latin America, in addition to 35,000 in the first quarter of 2023.
