MADRID: More than one million undocumented migrants in Spain have sought legal status under a scheme that has defied a wider European crackdown on irregular immigration, the government said on Tuesday, the final day for submissions. The vast scheme was predicted to benefit around 500,000 people, most from Latin America, when the left-wing government launched it in April. “The more than one million applications submitted … show how necessary this recognition of rights and responsibilities was,” Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told an event in Madrid.

It's a race against time in Spain, where undocumented migrants have just hours left to apply for a special mass regularisation programme before the deadline expires.

June 30th marks the deadline for the mass regularisation of undocumented migrants in Spain, with the data suggesting that the total number of applicants will be far higher than…