On Monday, the National Police in Palma reported having arrested eight people who had been engaged in the fraudulent town hall registration of foreign nationals. In one case, a person who had just inherited a property found out that eleven people had been registered at the address; he had no idea who any of them were.
The arrests in Palma were part of an ongoing campaign against fraudulent registrations. This started in late 2023. The National Police said they would be scrutinising town hall databases for potential evidence of registration of foreigners without legal status in Spain, especially multiple registrations at specific addresses. Criminal gangs were being paid to obtain registration, a benefit of which is the ability to register for a health card.
In 2023, the National Police officers found that 85 undocumented people were registered at three addresses in Inca. The president of the FELIB federation of town halls, Maria de la Salut's mayor Jaume Ferriol, said that a number of town halls then began to receive demands to remove undocumented residents from their registers.
However, not all cases involved organised crime. In October 2024, several long-time residents were fined for registering live-in caregivers without papers at their homes. FELIB requested a meeting with the National Police and the Spanish Government's Delegation in the Balearics to find a solution that would not penalise individuals who, although breaking the law by registering undocumented immigrants, did so out of ignorance rather than in exchange for payment.
Ferriol says: "When we met with the Police and the Government Delegation, officers told us they couldn't turn a blind eye when they detect criminal activity. But since then, we haven't come across any new cases. The delegation promised to help affected residents with the appeals process, and we know that of the two who received the notification in Maria de la Salut, one who appealed hasn't had to pay the fine (1,000 euros)."