Complaints about the asylum system overflow the Ombudsman’s mailbox: “The situations are perpetuated”

Just a year ago, the National Police dealt a blow to a network that managed to block immigration appointments with a computer robot and earned tens of thousands of euros by selling them on the black market. The most coveted appointments were those at the asylum, which could be sold for up to 200 euros. The operation, in theory, should have put an end to hacking, the lack of prior appointments and would facilitate the foreigner’s relationship with the Administration, but this has not been the case. The issue worries the Ombudsman who now processes 2,500 complaints from people with difficulties requesting asylum, a very high number that places this problem among the main issues that citizens transmit to the institution. The agency diagnoses that not enough resources are being used.

After the arrest of the alleged leader of the network, a clever engineer who designed software capable of hijacking shifts, the police blew up the traditional appointment request system and each police station decided on a different way to channel requests (telephone, email, in person). Thus, in theory it was guaranteed that the appointments were for those truly interested, and the business of new pirates who never stop acting was blocked. “Despite the measures adopted, the Ombudsman continues to receive a high number of complaints about lack of asylum appointments,” maintains the institution in a recent resolution.

Ángel Gabilondo’s resolution makes an x-ray that reveals who hits this wall the hardest. Either case exposes how Spain systematically fails to comply with the European directive that establishes a period of three business days to register the request (and six months to resolve it). Another reminder that the Spanish asylum system, which has been calling for structural reforms for years, both to stop abuses and to guarantee rights, remains precarious despite the numbers. According to data published by the Ministry of the Interior, as of December 31, 2023, more than 163,218 applications had been registered, 37% more than in 2022. The majority come from Venezuela, Colombia and Peru.

Among the 2,500 complaints sent to the Ombudsman there are people “who have been trying for months” to obtain a first asylum appointment (the system requires three: the expression of willingness to request protection, the formalization and the interview) and who, therefore, cannot They cannot even access the reception system, which is also unable to respond to demand.

There are also many families who are not treated together when they go to police stations. “Only one adult and minors are attended to, if applicable, indicating [la policía] “The rest must request a new individual appointment.” This practice, the defender recalls, represents an obstacle to the maintenance of the family unit and prevents the entire family from accessing the foster care system, giving rise to absurd situations. If, for example, only a mother and her children are cared for, they could access a shelter and be documented, while the husband would remain undocumented and away from her family.

There are also stratospheric delays and Gabilondo gives an example: a Venezuelan woman with an appointment in Lugo in almost two years, on December 5, 2025. “Assuming that her application is accepted for processing, she will not be authorized to work until June 2026, which unjustifiably delays their integration process and increases their dependence on social aid,” he maintains. These delays leave very vulnerable people homeless. In a resolution from June 2023, Gabilondo included the case of a 23-year-old Algerian woman who had fled a forced marriage and mistreatment in her country. It took her 14 months to formalize her asylum request with the police: “she has been living on charity, in very precarious conditions and even homeless, despite the risks that this implies for a young woman alone. ”.

Added to these are many other situations in which appointments are not made to renew the documentation, which, among other things, forces applicants to lose their jobs. “Unfortunately,” says Gabilondo, “the situations described here are not new, but have been perpetuated for years.”

A system dependent on the Police

The Ombudsman praises “the efforts” of the Secretary of State for Security and the National Police to “improve access to the appointment system”, but points out that the measures adopted “are insufficient”. He also calls for specific changes to resolve some of the deficiencies raised in the complaints. But the problem goes further and involves the decision of the Ministry of the Interior to delegate to the National Police functions that, in reality, do not correspond to it (assignment of prior appointments, carrying out asylum interviews and issuance of documentation) and without have reinforced staff as demand has skyrocketed.

No one seems happy with this decision, which began to be applied in 2013 in some provinces and became widespread in 2015. With the current volume of requests, asylum overloads agents because it is a procedure that requires resources, not only from officials but also from training, at the same time that it harms the interested parties. It must be remembered that the National Police manages many more procedures, beyond asylum appointments, such as fingerprinting, foreigner identity cards, NIE certificates, invitation letters, extensions of stay…

The anger of the police commanders with this matter could be seen a few months ago with the crisis of applicants that was seen in Barajas: the police officers assigned there (and those sent as reinforcements) were the only ones responsible for dealing with hundreds of requests for coup without sending, for example, a reinforcement of officials from the Asylum and Refuge Office.

“What was proposed as something specific is perpetuating itself over time, causing dysfunctions in the system that are the subject of constant complaints,” he recalled in his 2020 annual report. “The collaboration of the National Police has been essential to address the strong increase in requests, but it must be reviewed,” maintains the defender in his latest resolution for the fifth time in the last five years.

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