HORACI GARCIA and NACHO DOCE, of Reuters, report on the hopes of undocumented migrants in Spain amid an amnesty…
Nijar, Spain
Reuters
After seven years living as an undocumented migrant in Spain, doing day jobs and staying in shanty towns, Moroccan Abdelmoujoud Erra hopes a mass amnesty launched by the leftist government may finally turn his fortunes around.
“Without documents you work for €5 an hour. With documents, you work legally, with more money – maybe seven or €8 an hour,” said Erra, 27, in the southern Spanish province of Almería. Undocumented migrants there gather at roundabouts hoping to be hired to pick fruit and vegetables in Europe’s largest concentration of greenhouses.
Moroccan migrant Abdelmoujoud Erra, 27, sits on a bed at a shack friend’s near the site where the place they lived burned in a fire in Nijar, province of Almeria, Spain, on 21st April, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters/Nacho Doce
He is among many undocumented migrants applying for the amnesty, which could benefit hundreds of thousands and will run through June.
“Without documents you work for €5 an hour. With documents, you work legally, with more money – maybe seven or €8 an hour.”
– Moroccan migrant Abdelmoujoud Erra
The policy is a pillar of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s agenda to harness the economic benefits of migration for its ageing population, even as other countries tighten borders.
But it has enraged right-wing opposition parties. The People’s Party says it will saturate public services, while Vox has accused the government of seeking to replace Spanish natives.
If he had had legal status, Erra said, he would have been able to pursue his dream of building a professional boxing career and to visit his family in Morocco.
“I’ve lost a lot of time. If only I had had papers earlier”, he said.
Moroccan migrant Abdelmoujoud Erra, 27, queues to buy a bus ticket to Valladolid, to obtain a vulnerability certificate to regularise migration status, in Almeria, Spain, on 22nd April, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters/Nacho Doce
Last month, a fire tore through the informal settlement where he lived, though his documents for the amnesty were saved because he had stored them at the local Red Cross office.
With more than 30,000 hectares of intensive crops under plastic, Almería is the European Union’s main winter supplier of vegetables, including tomatoes and cucumbers, exporting produce worth €3 billion annually and employing around 80,000 people, according to unions and authorities.
While the ultimate impact on production and labour costs is still unclear, agriculture business groups and unions say they hope it will help address a shortage of workers.
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Andrés Góngora, coordinator of farmers’ union COAG, acknowledged that the sector employs some migrants in the country illegally and said the amnesty would provide stability. Having a larger workforce might allow for the planting of more labour-intensive crops and foster social cohesion, he added.
Charities have long criticised conditions around Almería, estimating around 10,000 migrants live in substandard housing and that at least 70 per cent of the workforce is undocumented.
Spain’s 50 million-strong population has swelled in recent years, fuelled by migration. Roughly 840,000 undocumented migrants are currently in the workforce, thinktank Funcas estimates.
An undocumented migrant from Morocco uses an electric scooter to transport water on a canister in a shanty town after returning of his work in a plastic-covered greenhouse in Almeria province, home to Europe’s largest concentration of agricultural greenhouses, in Nijar, Spain, on 24th April, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters/Nacho Doce
Among them is 35-year-old Ghanaian Michael Aymaga, who lives in a migrant settlement outside the town of Nijar, with intermittent power supply and limited water access.
He is overjoyed by the amnesty and says he wants to contribute to his new home. “I would definitely use all my skills and everything I have to help Spain [become] a better Spain,” he said.