Spanish consulates abroad attended to 7,200 cases of collective and individual emergencies throughout 2022, almost twice as many as in the previous year (98.5% more). This figure reflects a recovery on travel following the mobility restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the 2022 Consular Activity Balance data, presented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, to the Council of Ministers.
Emergency assistance consists of the first consular response to any situation of lack of protection while being abroad, including support to family members and relatives of affected Spaniards. In addition to face-to-face assistance at consulates, 135 899 emergency calls were received through the emergency lines set up to this effect, 46% more than in 2021.
In the case of collective emergencies, two situations are particularly relevant:
• War in Ukraine. 142 Spaniards were evacuated in two convoys during the first days of the war. Since then, the situation of those who chose to stay and of the reporters who come to report on the conflict has been monitored.
• Afghanistan. In addition to the ten-day evacuation of around 2,300 people, including Embassy staff and collaborators, during the summer of 2021, last year the Government organised two operations that allowed 357 Afghans to be transferred to Spain. The embassies of Pakistan and other nearby countries continue working in order to ensure that none of the collaborators whose lives and those of their families are threatened are left behind.
Attention to Spaniards abroad
Beyond emergency situations, the 179 Consular Offices attend to nearly 3 million Spanish citizens registered as residents abroad, on a daily basis; a group that would constitute the third largest province in Spain in terms of population and that has practically doubled since 2009. These Consular Offices also help the millions of Spaniards who every year travel to other countries for tourism, business or other reasons. Argentina, France, the United States and Germany are the countries with the largest number of Spaniards.
Issuance of passports, safe-conducts or visas are some of the routine services offered by these offices. In 2022, 365 558 passports were issued throughout the consular network and 1.3 million visas were processed, 113.7% more than in 2021. Both figures also reflect the progressive recovery of pre-pandemic figures.
Support to women who are victims of violence
The Government of Spain's commitment to care and assistance for women who are victims of violence extends beyond our borders. These are cases of special vulnerability, as the victims do not have their own family social network, have difficulties with the language and are often unfamiliar with the reality of the country.
During 2022, the Consular Offices handled 251 new cases and 14 repatriation cases were processed, allowing for 20 people to return back to Spain.
Spanish nationals arrested abroad
As of 31 December 2022, there were 894 people of Spanish nationality detained in other countries, 13% more than in 2021. They are 788 men and 106 women, most of them in prisons in France, Germany and Morocco.
Consular aid to these people includes making representations to the country's police and prison authorities, ensuring acceptable conditions for their state of health, intermediating with family members so that they can maintain contact and carrying out regular consular visits. The Consular Offices granted financial aid to detainees amounting to 184,000 euros to ease their situation in places where prison conditions were not comparable to those in Spain.
Furthermore, in 2022 36 files were processed for the relocation to Spain of people serving sentences in South America and North Africa, in compliance with the treaties signed with 38 countries.
Reform on overseas voting
One of the main tasks of the consulates is to help Spaniards living abroad participate in electoral processes called in Spain. The removal of the vote by request, by means of a reform on overseas voting approved by this Government last year, facilitates and simplifies the exercise of this right. Spaniards registered in the Electoral Census of Absent Residents (CERA) will now receive the documentation without the need to request it previously; they will be able to print the ballots at home and will have more days and places to cast their vote in the ballot box or send it by mail.
Democratic Memory Law
Since October of last year, those who could not opt for Spanish nationality between 2008 and 2011, under the Historical Memory Law, can now do so. The new Democratic Memory Law also includes other conditions of eligibility, such as being the son or daughter (born abroad) of Spanish women whose nationality was lost due to their marriages to foreign nationals before the entry into force of the 1978 Constitution; or being the adult son or daughter of a Spaniard whose nationality has been recognized through the Historical Memory Law and the Democratic Memory Law. Now these people have two years to opt for nationality.
As of 31 January, 24,729 applications for the option of Spanish nationality have been filed in the consular network as a whole. Half of them, 12,862, have been approved, and 6,653 registrations have been made. The consular offices are being reinforced to attend the demands of the people interested in carrying out this procedure.
-NON OFFICIAL TRANSLATION-