The European Commission has approved a major budget amendment for Spain's asylum and migration fund. The move is being regarded as a vote of confidence in Spain's migration management, including recent policy changes which will see about 500,000 undocumented immigrants regularized.
Spain's National Program of the Asylum, Migration, and Integration Fund (FAMI) will receive an additional 244 million euros for its 2021 – 2027 budget, bringing the total to 812 million euros.
This fifth budget adjustment of its kind means that Spain will now receive 68 percent more funds than the initial total of 482 million euros.
An additional 82 million euros have been made available to Spain through FAMI during this period for addressing strategic priorities and urgent needs, bringing the total allocated funds for migration policies to nearly 900 million euros.
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'Confidence' in Spanish migration model
In a statement, Spain's Secretary of State for Migration, Pilar Cancela, said that "the new expansion demonstrates the European institutions' confidence in the Spanish migration model, which has become an international benchmark by combining effective management with a humane, safe, and human rights-based approach."
The remark is seen as a direct reference to Spain's initiative to regularize over half a million people in the country and to provide them access to essential services, including public healthcare.
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While the initiative has been welcomed by some, it has also attracted criticism from the far-right, with some leaders within the populist Vox party referring to the policy — among other things — as a waste of public funds.
Spain's initiative to integrate this large cohort of undocumented migrants can in many ways be seen as a reverse trend compared to much of the rest of Europe, where increasingly tighter borders and more limiting asylum rules have been driving policy changes in recent years.
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One-sixth of budget allocated to EU Pact on Migration and Asylum
The new FIMA budget will allocate 129.5 million euros to the implementation of the European Pact on Migration and Asylum in Spain, according to the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration.
The EU pact is due to be implemented across the bloc later this year, designed to streamline and modernize asylum and border management policies, with a view of ultimately lowering immigration to the European Union.
As one of the frontline states with one of the highest rates of irregular migrant arrivals in southern Europe, Spain will be one of the key beneficiaries of the pact, which has a solidarity mechanism to distribute migrants across the bloc more evenly at its core.
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Spain faces significant migratory pressure from irregular arrivals from the African continent, mainly by sea, especially on the Canary Islands as well as on the Balearic Archipelago.
Just over 64,000 people managed to reach Spain through such irregular means in 2024; the following year however, a number of government initiatives and partnerships with key countries of departure in Africa resulted in a 43 percent overall drop -- a trend that appears to continue:
To date this year, 5,600 migrants have managed to enter Spanish territory irregularly, which is half the number compared to the same period in 2025.
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Helping migrants on multiple fronts
The FAMI funds have also been channelled into the operation of reception centers for migrants in Spain, which during this budget period have particularly been important to address the needs of people displaced by the war in Ukraine.
Since January 2023, FAMI has upped its allocated budget for reception centers, in particular to increase funds earmarked for administrative and technical staff services as well as the maintenance of the facilities.
In the past four years, over 260,000 people have been assisted at these dedicated venues, with more than 126,000 newcomers being registered at the four centers, located in Madrid, Barcelona, Alicante, and Malaga.
Another beneficiary of the FAMI budget in recent years is the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE), which has received support to promote initiatives such as the collection and analysis of information in these areas of concern.
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Saving individual lives — not only in Spain
The funds have also directly helped rebuild the lives of 22 victims of human trafficking as well as 52 migrant women, who had become victims of gender-based violence.
The funds have also benefitted people wishing to return to their home countries voluntarily, which is another pillar of FAMI's work, while also helping to fund the resettlement of refugees from conflict-ridden parts of the world.
In 2025 alone, 817 refugees -- most of whom were beneficiaries of international protection -- were brought to Spain, with the majority coming from Lebanon and Costa Rica.
with EFE