Last month, the Economic and Social Council (CES) warned of an ‘allegal market’ for administrative appointments in its “Report on the reality of migration in Spain: Priorities for public policies”, which, it warns, leaves migrants in a ‘dead end’. The department headed by Elma Saiz requested the study from the CES ‘to contribute to the diagnosis of this reality and to provide proposals for action with the aim of achieving orderly, safe and regular migration’.
The document reveals that the ‘difficulties’ of accessing an appointment via the Internet ‘have been exacerbated by the proliferation of practices that automatically hoard appointments online and divert them to private circuits, making them available only to certain professional services and in exchange for high fees’.
And now, the Spanish Government is considering introducing personalised codes or passwords in 2026 to prevent fraudulent use and “trading” of appointments at immigration offices. ‘We hope that, by the first quarter of next year at the latest, we will have specific controls in place to prevent the fraudulent use of appointments or their trading,’ said the Secretary of State for Migration, Pilar Cancela, in an interview with Europa Press, warning that the vulnerability of these people is increasing.
She made this clear when asked about the “Report on the reality of migration in Spain: Priorities for public policies”, drawn up by the Economic and Social Council (CES) at the request of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration. In it, she acknowledges the existence of an ‘alegal market’ for administrative appointments for immigration procedures.
The document reveals that the ‘difficulties’ in accessing an appointment online ‘have been exacerbated by the proliferation of practices that automatically hoard appointments on the internet and divert them to private circuits, making them available only through certain professional services and in exchange for high fees’.
Approximately two months ago, the government set up an interministerial working group - made up of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, the Ministry of Territorial Policy and the Ministry of the Interior - with the aim of strengthening controls and preventing fraudulent practices before they occur.
‘We are trying to analyse how we can strengthen controls, how we can establish procedures to detect these types of situations and, more than detecting them, prevent them from occurring,’ said Cancela.
The idea, according to Cancela, is to reach a solution ‘as soon as possible’, ‘perhaps by establishing some kind of code, some kind of personalised key, so that no one can represent someone else and collect a commission’.
The Secretary of State for Migration has indicated that the Ministry ‘always’ responds to all reports, especially when they are ‘so well-founded,’ but also to alerts from the various entities, associations, and professionals who work in the immigration offices. She explained that, in recent months, ministry officials have travelled to different territories to hold working meetings and dialogue with these actors, especially after the approval of the new Immigration Regulations, in view of the foreseeable increase in the volume of procedures.
At the same time, the government has reinforced the staff of the immigration offices with a first intake of personnel in October and plans a second reinforcement at the beginning of the year, accompanied by an additional budget allocation. ‘We hope that with all this joint action, we will be able to minimise, and I believe even eliminate, this type of situation,’ said Cancela.