More than 3,600 migrants residing in Lleida have applied for residence and work permits during the first month of the extraordinary process of documentary regularization initiated on April 16. The volume registered in the city exceeds initial forecasts, which placed the pool of workers in the informal economy at around 7,500 people.
The figure also comes after the Supreme Court rejected the precautionary suspension of the process yesterday. Between April 14 and yesterday, the Paeria processed 3,667 registration certificates and 2,399 vulnerability reports, a pace that overwhelms the ordinary in-person capacity of the central administration.
The Paeria processed 3,667 registrations and 2,399 reports in one month
The Lleida City Council has channeled most of the procedures through the offices set up in Mercolleida. The centers in Rambla Ferran, La Bordeta, La Paeria, and La Mariola have also intervened to absorb the demand generated by the regularization.
Carlos Enjuanes, councilor for Social Action and Innovation, stated that the operation has functioned normally since the first day, except for the queues registered at the opening. After that initial day, the flow of attention stabilized, according to the councilor.
All registration certificates have already been delivered. On the other hand, 730 vulnerability reports remain pending, and the city council expects to distribute them throughout this week.
Some of those who have requested this report are not registered in the city and will have to prove their residence prior to July 31 through other means, such as rent receipts or visas. Those who already have a job offer, opt to register as self-employed, or have minors or elderly dependents are excluded from this procedure.
The telematic route concentrates most applications despite the in-person limit
Most of the applications are being submitted online, while in-person assistance maintains a ceiling of 400 weekly applications. This quota is distributed among 24 daily applications at the Correos offices in Ferran and Calle Segovia, and 32 at the Social Security offices in Cappont.
The lack of official updates adds another difficulty to reading the process, because the central Administration has not provided new data since the end of April. In parallel, the volume of procedures that the municipal network has assumed in areas such as social care in neighborhoods with higher demand allows us to measure the local dimension of the regularization.
The city council also maintains contact with the business sector to prepare labor intermediation formulas for the fruit harvesting campaign. The intention is to connect job seekers with companies that need labor in the coming weeks.
One of the figures that marks the scope of the operation is that 730 vulnerability reports are still pending delivery and the city council plans to distribute them during this week.