MADRID – Spain has passed a bill giving rights to hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants, a move campaigners say Britain should follow.

It is hoped that the amnesty bill passed by Spain’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday will help fill jobs in understaffed sectors such as hospitality and agriculture and mean informal workers start paying taxes.

The Regularizacion Ya (Regularization Now) platform, the rights group and NGO behind the proposal, estimates that there are an estimated 470,000 undocumented immigrants in Spain, about a third of whom are minors.

between 800,000 and 1.2 million In 2017, illegal immigrants were considered to be living in the United Kingdom, according to the Pew Research Center.

Dr Dora-Olivia Vicor, CEO of the centre, tells us I The UK should adopt a similar amnesty bill for undocumented immigrants.

“Doing the same thing here could improve the lives of many people in the UK,” she said, adding that the charity’s caseworkers see people every day who “have started families and lived here, but are being prevented from doing so by hostile forces.” Legal work here to support them”. environment”.

“It’s frustrating that ministers are overly focused on seeking to impose immigration controls at all costs, even if it’s bad for workers, bad for legitimate businesses, bad for tax revenue and especially bad for ethnic minorities who are disproportionately subject to their right to work. Check. ”

Peter Murphy of the Center for Migration Policy and Society at Oxford University said neither the Conservatives nor Labor were in favor of a similar amnesty.

“Is it good for the economy? If you formalize people, it could lead to them taking higher-level jobs, paying higher taxes and spending more. In the case of the UK, you could get an extra few billion , but the contribution will be small.

“I think the main benefit is the regular immigration itself.”

Many informal workers in Spain are employed in the “black economy” as domestic workers or farm workers who do not pay taxes but do not have any rights.

In 2005, the former Spanish government implemented a similar amnesty for approximately 800,000 undocumented people, and Italy has launched immigration amnesties in the past. But both countries are thought to have larger “black economies” than the UK.

The bill passed by a vote of 310 to 13, with support from all parties except the far-right group Vox.

The left-wing ruling coalition led by the Socialist Party had expressed doubts about the initiative because it might not be in compliance with European law, but ultimately supported it on the condition that it be later revised.

The parties have two months to revise the proposal, which only applies to work migrants who arrived before 2021, and decide how to regularize nearly 500,000 irregular migrants before a final vote.

“For many people who are not registered, access to health services and education is almost impossible and you find yourself in a precarious and precarious situation,” Regularización Ya spokesperson Lamine Seer said.

Immigrants without legal status currently spend years trying to obtain legal work contracts that would allow them to access services such as education and health care.