Spain advances Western Sahara citizenship bill, raising risk for Morocco ties

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Spain Western Sahara citizenship bill

Highlights

Spain’s lower house approves a Sumar-backed bill granting citizenship to up to 80,000 Sahrawis born before 1977 and their descendants, with 168 votes in favour.
The bill raises diplomatic risk with Morocco, as Rabat may view it as support for Sahrawi separatism and a shift from Spain’s 2022 backing of Morocco’s autonomy plan.
The citizenship initiative follows continued tensions over migration, including over 70,000 migrants entering Ceuta and newly declassified Spanish intelligence reports criticizing Moroccan authorities’ passivity.

Citizenship bill and parliamentary backing

As reported by Financial Times, Spain’s lower house has endorsed a bill granting citizenship to tens of thousands of Sahrawis born in Western Sahara before 1977 and their descendants. The proposal passes on Thursday with 168 votes in favour, 31 against and 145 abstentions.

The initiative comes from Sumar, a leftwing party in Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s ruling coalition. Sumar says those affected have remained in legal and political limbo for decades and argues Spain owes a historical debt to the Sahrawi people because of the unresolved decolonisation process.

Sumar estimates the measure could benefit up to 80,000 people. The conservative People’s Party abstains, saying it supports restoring nationality through residency rather than by naturalisation decree, while Vox votes against and says Spanish nationality must be protected.

Diplomatic fallout and migration pressure

Western Sahara, a former Spanish territory until 1976, remains a long-running source of friction between Spain and Morocco, which claims sovereignty over the region. Madrid backs Morocco’s autonomy plan in 2022 after an earlier migration crisis in Ceuta, but the new bill risks being seen in Rabat as undermining that position.

Samir Bennis, co-founder of Morocco World News, says on X that the law would represent a great affront to Morocco and could trigger a crisis by creating a Spanish base for Sahrawi separatism. The UN still classifies Western Sahara as a non-self-governing territory, and efforts to organise a referendum on its future remain stalled for decades.

The vote also comes after tensions linked to Ceuta, where more than 70,000 migrants swam from Morocco to the Spanish exclave. Spain’s government this week declassifies intelligence and security reports on that episode, including findings from the armed forces intelligence centre that Moroccan authorities showed passivity toward the crossings, while local officials say up to 10,000 migrants still remain in Ceuta.

Our earlier article on UK anti-migrant protests in Dover and Portsmouth examined mounting pressure on police and the government ahead of fresh demonstrations linked to Patriot Platform. We highlighted calls for tougher enforcement — including against masked protestors — after criticism that last weekend’s disorder led to few visible arrests, while volunteers such as RNLI crews faced intimidation during migrant rescue operations.

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