MADRID – A battle over migration is playing out in the popular holiday island of Ibiza, with right-wing parties rebelling against a Spanish government decree to legalise hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants.
Spain’s conservative People’s Party and the hard-right Vox party, which control the regional government in the Balearic Islands, have presented a petition against the order to legalise at least half a million undocumented migrants across Spain.
It comes as small boat arrivals to the islands of Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca and Formentera hit 7,321 last year, up 24.5 per cent compared to 2024, according to Spain’s interior ministry.
The Spanish government migration decree, passed in January, said that people who could prove they had been living in Spain for at least five months could apply to get legal status. However, police unions said that the measure will probably benefit over one million people who only need to show they have no criminal record. The application window starts in April and runs until June.
It is thought that some 10,000 migrants would gain legal status in the Balearic Islands under the government decree.
Ivan Fidalgo, a representative for the Civil Guard Association in the Balearic Islands, who is based in Ibiza, said he was worried that police would be overwhelmed by the arrival of more undocumented migrants this year.
While the number of maritime crossings to Spain, including to the Canary Islands from West Africa, fell by 46 per cent last year, compared to 2024, the Balearic Islands have bucked the trend. Overall, 32,925 people reached Spanish shores by sea in 2025, compared with 61,372 the year before.
“In winter, the situation has been a little bit more tranquil because of the bad weather, which has impeded them from coming. But as the weather improved more have arrived in small boats,” Fidalgo told The i Paper.
“Already 50 boats have come with more than 1,000 migrants. It looks like this year we will beat last year’s record. And it is going to attract more because of the regularisation of migrants and the universal health provision for all.”
Fidalgo said police forces were stretched to deal with undocumented migrants because many officers had left the island due to the high cost of living.
The Spanish government has sought to encourage legal migration to help fill a shortfall in its workforce and to ensure people pay tax and social security towards a country with an ageing society and an increasing pensions bill.
The migration decree did not need to go through Spain’s parliament, where the Socialist-led coalition government lacks a majority and where it would likely have met with resistance from the People’s Party and Vox.
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