Iran, the flotillas, Democratic Memory, and digitization: Albares presents the 2025 consular report

Eduardo González Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares presented the 2025 consular report to the Council of Ministers on Tuesday. The report highlighted the year's main challenges, including the evacuations from Libya, Iran, Israel, and Palestine; consular assistance to Spanish participants in the flotillas to Gaza; the completion of the process for granting Spanish nationality under the Democratic Memory Law; and the digitization of consular services. According to the report, the number of Spaniards abroad has doubled to 3.2 million, up from 5.5 million in 2009, necessitating a strengthening of the Spanish consular network. This increase is compounded by various international crises, resulting in nearly 9,000 collective and individual emergencies. “Several collective emergencies impacted consular activity throughout the past year, such as the evacuations from Libya, Iran, Israel, and Palestine, and the consular assistance operations deployed to ensure the protection of Spanish participants in several flotillas tasked with delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip,” the report highlights. “To these collective emergencies must be added the consular operations deployed to address the emergencies caused by the crash of a tourist helicopter in the United States and the sinking of a tourist vessel in Indonesia,” it continues. Regarding emergencies, the document recalls that, in May 2025, following the assassination in Libya of one of the leaders of the four armed factions that controlled the city of Tripoli, intense fighting broke out, leading to the closure of the capital's airport. For this reason, “the Embassy organized a convoy to evacuate seventeen Spanish citizens by road from Tripoli to the city of Misrata, whose airport remained open, and from where they were able to take a flight out of the country.” In addition, the attack carried out by Israel against Iran on June 13, 2025, and the subsequent Iranian response led to the closure of airspace in these two countries, as well as in Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria. In response, evacuation operations were organized from Iran and from Israel and Palestine. In the case of Iran, 44 people (36 Spaniards and eight foreign family members) were evacuated on June 19 by road in a convoy organized by the Spanish Embassy in Tehran to the border with Armenia, from where they were transferred to Yerevan airport. From there, they were able to return to Spain on June 20 on a Spanish Air Force plane. In the case of Israel and Palestine, the Spanish Embassy in Tel Aviv and the Spanish Consulate General in Jerusalem coordinated an evacuation operation that facilitated the transfer of 204 people (177 Spaniards and 27 foreigners). On June 20, two road convoys were organized to Jordan, where they were picked up at the border and transported in another convoy from the Spanish Embassy in Amman to the Jordanian capital's airport. There, a Spanish Air Force and Space aircraft was waiting to take them back to Spain, where they arrived on June 21. Furthermore, in the autumn of 2025, “several flotillas were deployed to the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid and raise awareness of the humanitarian needs and the necessity of stopping the war,” the document recalls. Therefore, a permanent monitoring unit was established within the Consular Emergency Division to ensure the safety of the Spanish crew members. Following the interception in early October by the Israeli navy of the vessels comprising the so-called Freedom Flotilla (“Global Sumud Flotilla”), assistance was provided to the 49 detained Spanish citizens to enable their return to Spain. They also received consular assistance from the Spanish Embassy in Israel during their detention. A few days later, a second flotilla (“Thousand Madleens to Gaza”), carrying another eight Spaniards, was also intercepted by the Israeli navy, and its members were subsequently repatriated to Spain. Furthermore, according to the report, Consular Offices continued processing nationality applications in 2025 submitted under the Eighth Additional Provision of Law 20/2022, of October 19, on Democratic Memory. From October 2022 until the expiration of this provision in October 2025, the consular network received 1,064,131 applications, approved 490,431 cases, and processed 255,163 registrations. Up to October 22, 2025, an additional 1,389,194 appointment requests were received, which are being processed since the expiration of the Eighth Additional Provision. Consular digitization Furthermore, the report highlights the digitization of consular services, which is part of the modernization process of the Public Administration and the European Union's Digital Agenda. This initiative has been financed with over €100 million from the European funds of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, allocated to both the foreign service and the Ministry's central services. In this regard, the document notes the completion of the rollout of DICIREG, the electronic Civil Registry, which has been operational throughout the consular network since June 2025, and the implementation, in December 2025, of the Single Processing Desk in all Consular Offices. This will allow consular staff to manage various consular procedures electronically. Both of these advancements are part of the consular digitization strategy, in which €115 million has been invested. The document also highlights the strengthening of the consular network with the creation of new Consulates General in Camagüey and Bangalore, in addition to those in Manchester and Chengdu, and the renovation of others, such as the one in London. “This places Spain among the countries with the most extensive consular network of European Union member states, with 88 Consulates General, two Consulates, and 90 Consular Sections in Embassies,” according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Furthermore, the report states that, in the last four years, the number of staff abroad has also increased by 2,300.

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