The updated AIDA Country Report on Spain provides a detailed overview on legislative and practice-related developments in asylum procedures, reception conditions, detention of asylum applicants and content of international protection in 2025. It is accompanied by an annex which provides an overview of temporary protection.
A number of key developments drawn from the overview of the main changes that have taken place since the publication of the update on 2024 are set out below.
Statistics
- Asylum applications and decisions: Spain received 144,396 asylum applications in 2025, down from 167,366 in the previous year. The main countries of origin of applicants were Venezuela, Mali, Colombia, Peru and Senegal. Of the 75,274 decisions that were issued in 2025, 7,838 resulted in the granting of refugee status, 10,103 in the granting of subsidiary protection and 57,333 in the granting of humanitarian protection, while 68,321 applications were rejected. By the end of the year, 97,275 applications remained pending at first instance. The overall recognition rate was 12.5% for refugee and subsidiary status, and 52.4% when humanitarian protection is included.
Asylum procedure
- Access to the territory: 36,775 people reached Spain by land and sea routes in 2025. This represented a 42.6% decrease from the previous year (64,019). The Canary Islands remained the primary point of arrival (17,788 irregular arrivals). Despite the major decrease in the number of arrivals in 2025, the human cost remained high. The NGO Caminando Fronteras estimated that 3,090 people died attempting to reach Spain, including 1,906 on the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands. Separately, the International Organization for Migration reported 424 deaths on the Atlantic route and 270 on the Western Mediterranean route.
- Delays in registration: The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported persistent delays in accessing the asylum procedure in 2025, with waiting times frequently exceeding three months in some regions.
Reception conditions
- Challenges for unaccompanied minors: In March 2025, the Central Government approved the mandatory distribution of 4,400 unaccompanied minors (UAMs) from the Canary Islands across the various autonomous communities. This was followed in May by a Supreme Court ruling which guaranteed child asylum applicants the right to remain within the national reception system. By the end of January 2026, 877 UAMs had been relocated from the Canary Islands to the mainland.
Detention of asylum applicants
- New immigration detention centre in Algeciras: A new immigration detention centre (CIE) was opened in November 2025 in Algeciras. In February 2026, it was subject to a legal challenge relating to its authorisation to operate.
Content of international protection
- Access to rights: People seeking asylum continued to encounter significant barriers to housing, employment, and financial services in 2025. These systemic challenges were mirrored in the social sphere where UAMs and LGBTQI+ people remained particularly vulnerable to persistent discrimination.
- Regularisation: In January 2026, the Central Government authorised the urgent processing of a draft royal decree establishing extraordinary regularisation measures for foreign nationals. This initiative sought to provide immediate legal security and comprehensive work and residency rights to hundreds of thousands of people already living in Spain.
Temporary protection
- Statistics: 30,628 people were granted temporary protection (TP) in Spain in 2025. As of 31 December 2025, a total of 338,576 residence permits had been issued to TP beneficiaries.
- Integration: 35,647 TP beneficiaries had successfully entered the Spanish workforce by 31 December 2025.
The full report is available here and the annex on temporary protection is available here.
For more information about the AIDA database or to read other AIDA reports, please visit the AIDA website.