By Benjamin Mejias
MADRID, Sept 10 (Reuters) – Spain’s lower house voted on Thursday to grant citizenship to Sahrawis born when Madrid administered the North African territory of Western Sahara as a colony, a move that could inflame delicate relations with Morocco.
The legislation, which a statement from parliament said was approved with 168 votes in favour, 31 against and 145 abstentions, would also allow descendants of those granted citizenship to acquire it.
Some 70,000 to 110,000 Sahrawis could be eligible for Spanish citizenship, according to local media.
Spain’s ruling Socialist Party and its junior left-wing partner Sumar, which filed the initiative, were among those who supported the bill, while the opposition conservative People’s Party abstained and far-right Vox voted against it.
“With the adoption of this legislation, we are restoring – and I emphasise, restoring – the Spanish national identity card to those Sahrawis who once held it and from whom this state took it away,” said Tesh Sidi of the leftist Sumar coalition, the first woman of Sahrawi origin to serve in parliament.
TENSIONS WITH MOROCCO
Tensions have grown between Spain and Morocco following the mass arrival of at least 70,000 migrants in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta in July.
Spain controlled Western Sahara under various administrative arrangements from 1884 until 1976. Morocco claims sovereignty over Western Sahara and began asserting control over the territory after Spanish rule ended.
The Algerian-backed Polisario Front independence movement seeks recognition of an independent state called the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
Many Sahrawis live in refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria, or elsewhere abroad, while others remain in Western Sahara.
Spain had supported a referendum in the territory — in line with United Nations resolutions — until Sanchez’s government reversed course in 2022 and backed Morocco’s position.
Tensions eased somewhat after that shift, with Madrid describing Rabat’s autonomy proposal for Western Sahara as “serious, credible and realistic”.
(Reporting by Benjamín Mejías Valencia and David Latona; editing by Charlie Devereux and Gareth Jones)
