Spain's Congress Backs Citizenship for Sahrawis Born Under Spanish Rule
The bill passed the lower house by 168 votes to 31, with the conservatives abstaining. It now goes to the Senate and could reach tens of thousands of people in Western Sahara and the Algerian camps.
Spain's Congress of Deputies has approved a bill that would grant Spanish nationality to people from Western Sahara born while the territory was under Spanish rule, and to their children. The measure passed on Thursday 10 September by 168 votes to 31, with 145 abstentions, and now moves to the Senate.
The bill covers Sahrawis born before 29 September 1977, the date Spain treats as the effective end of its presence in the territory. Once the law is published, eligible people would have three years to apply, and they would not need to have ever lived in Spain.
How the vote broke down
The measure was sponsored and backed by the governing Socialist Party and its left-wing coalition partner, Sumar. The conservative People's Party and the Catalan nationalist party Junts abstained, and the far-right Vox voted against.
Tesh Sidi, a Sumar MP who was born in the Sahrawi refugee camps, framed the bill as a matter of historical responsibility: "We are correcting a historic injustice." She argued that voting against it or abstaining amounted to taking Morocco's side.
Who could benefit
The exact number is unknown. Sahrawi organisations estimate that between 70,000 and 120,000 people could qualify, while some estimates that include descendants approach 200,000. Applicants would need to prove their eligibility with documents such as old Spanish identity cards, entries in the census compiled for a planned UN referendum, birth certificates, or supporting records from schools and hospitals.
Many potential applicants live in the refugee camps near Tindouf, in south-western Algeria, where tens of thousands of Sahrawis have lived for decades. Others live in the Moroccan-controlled part of Western Sahara or in Spain.
Why it matters
Western Sahara was a Spanish colony until 1975. Morocco now controls most of the territory, which the United Nations lists as non-self-governing, while the Algerian-backed Polisario Front seeks independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. In 2022 Spain abandoned its long-standing neutrality and endorsed Morocco's autonomy plan, a shift that angered Algeria and many Sahrawis.
- For Sahrawis, citizenship would bring a Spanish passport, freedom of movement in the EU and a formal acknowledgement of Spain's colonial ties.
- For Spain's government, the bill offers a gesture to Sahrawis and to left-wing allies without reversing its position on Moroccan autonomy.
- For relations with Rabat, the reaction so far has been calm: a member of Morocco's Royal Advisory Council said Rabat had "no problem" with Sahrawis obtaining Spanish citizenship.
- For Algeria, the vote may be read as a modest step towards recognising Sahrawi grievances.
The timing is delicate. The vote came as relations between Madrid and Rabat are under strain over the mass crossing of migrants into Ceuta in July, and on the same day Morocco publicly rejected accusations that it had played a role in that surge.
What happens next
The bill now goes to the Senate, where amendments are expected. The People's Party holds a majority in the upper house, so its approach will shape the final text. Its decision to abstain rather than oppose in Congress suggests it is unlikely to try to kill the measure outright, but it could slow it down or narrow its scope, for example by tightening the documentary requirements.
If the Senate amends the bill, it would return to Congress for a final vote. Once published, the three-year application window would begin, and Spanish consulates and civil registries would face the practical challenge of verifying claims that often rest on documents issued half a century ago.
Image: Javier Perez Montes via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0