Migratory Flows

Migration is a phenomenon inherent to human beings and, therefore, to international society. The demographic and geostrategic evolution of the different regions at the global level has seen migration become one of the main vectors of socio-economic development and relations between states.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimated that in 2020, the latest available data, there were approximately 281 million international migrants, or 3.5 per cent of the world's population. On the other hand, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that there are more than 122 million forcibly displaced people in the world, including 38 million refugees and 72 million internally displaced persons (IDPs).

For all these reasons, over the last few years, the European Union and the United Nations have placed migration at the centre of their attention and have developed an institutional and legal architecture to deal with migratory flows in a concerted and efficient manner, with human rights at the core, in order to achieve safe, orderly and regular migration.

Minister Albares and the Minister of the Home Affairs, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, in a family photo with the participants in the sixth Euro-African Dialogue on Migration and Development, held in Cádiz. EFE

How is Spain participating?

International level

Spain promotes an effective and supportive migration policy and actively participates in international migration forums and endorses the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, whose goal number 7 of the tenth goal calls for "facilitating orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies".

Within the framework of the United Nations, the path set by the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, to which Spain is a party, is particularly important. Since its adoption in 2018, signatory states have conducted four-yearly monitoring reports on the Covenant, with the aim of assessing how it is implemented and identifying areas for improvement. States may also voluntarily participate in interim regional reviews, which are intended to provide continuity to the exercise. Spain has taken part in all of them, always involving civil society and the different levels of government, and fully applying the approaches whole of society and whole of government approaches advocated by the Pact. Spain also co-chaired the review of the UNECE region in May 2024.

On the other hand, Spain is firmly committed to multilateralism in the management of migration, based on respect for human rights, international cooperation and the search for sustainable solutions. In this regard, it collaborates with the main UN migration agencies - IOM and UNHCR - supporting their initiatives for the protection of migrants and refugees, the promotion of safe and orderly migration channels and the strengthening of global migration governance. It is also active in other multilateral fora, such as the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), which contributes to international dialogue on sustainable and inclusive migration policies. Through these spaces, Spain reaffirms its commitment to effective migration governance and the promotion of sustainable solutions coordinated at the global level.

At the bilateral level, Spain collaborates with the authorities of the countries of origin and transit, both Ibero-American and those located along the Atlantic and western Mediterranean migratory routes within a framework of broad dialogue based on mutual interest. It offers technical support and develops a sustained effort of institutional capacity building, always from a pathway approach focused on preventing and combating irregular migration and creating legal, orderly and safe pathways for labour mobility.

European Union

The EU's regional migration dialogues with third states are valuable instruments for addressing the migration phenomenon in a pathway approach. These include:

• The Rabat process (co-founded by Spain in 2006).
• The Khartoum process (2014).

Both established as platforms for inter-regional migration dialogue between the EU, its Member States and partner countries in Africa and ECOWAS. At the last Ministerial Conference of the Rabat Process, held in Spain in December 2022, the Ministerial Declaration and the Cádiz Action Plan were adopted, establishing a roadmap for progress on the aforementioned objectives.

The two Processes are harmonised at the 2015 Valletta Summit, adopting a Joint Action Plan that includes five pillars for comprehensive migration management:

Benefits of migration for development.
Tackling the root causes of migration.
Legal migration and mobility.
Protection and asylum.
Combating irregular migration, smuggling of migrants and trafficking in human beings.

Within the framework of these Processes, as well as the of Prague and Budapest Processes, numerous thematic meetings, expert workshops and meetings on best practices in migration management are held.

Spain also collaborates within the framework of the European Union with key institutions in the field of migration, such as Frontex (the European Border and Coast Guard Agency), created in 2004, and the EUAA (European Union Agency for Asylum), created in 2010.

The European Union adopted a European Agenda on Migration in 2015 and during the Spanish Presidency of the EU, in the second half of 2023, political agreement was reached on the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, adopted in May 2024. The Pact establishes new common rules and procedures to ensure regular, orderly and safe migration flows on the basis of a balance between solidarity and responsibility. An implementation process began in June 2024 and will be completed two years later.

Participants in the sixth Euro-African Dialogue on Migration and Development, held in Cádiz and chaired by Minister Albares, accompanied by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska. EFE