Spain has received half a million illegal migrants.
75% confidence
MigrationSpain
Omissions
The claim fails to specify whether it refers to total undocumented population (stock) or recent arrivals (flow)
The 500,000 figure appears to reference a proposed regularization policy, not recent migration data
The most recent data available before February 2026 shows approximately 837,938 undocumented migrants in Spain (stock) but only around 34,000 irregular arrivals in the first 11 months of 2025 (flow)
The BBC article was published in 2025, which the MEP could have known, but the specific data period varies by interpretation
Sources
SecondaryBBC NewsFuncas data shows undocumented migrants in Spain rose from 107,409 in 2017 to 837,938 in 2025; Spain plans to regularize approximately 500,000 undocumented migrants
SecondaryThe ConversationOfficial estimates suggest more than 500,000 people could benefit from regularization, but this could be an underestimate