Tag: spain

Spain: 70% Of Tested ‘Unaccompanied Minor’ Immigrants Are Actually Adults

The Spanish city of Madrid has delivered a stark confirmation of long-standing suspicions about unaccompanied foreign immigrants claiming to be minors. When this group undergoes rigorous medical age verification, 70 percent turn out to be adults over 18.

This is not a handful of isolated incidents but a systemic pattern that has become the norm in Spain’s capital. The findings, detailed in official data and reported by Spanish outlet El Debate, underscore a growing “farce” in the handling of unaccompanied minor claims across the country.

In 2024, authorities in the Madrid region opened 848 age-determination proceedings for individuals claiming to be unaccompanied foreign minors — a sharp increase from 482 the previous year. More than half of these cases were archived because the claimants abandoned the process before completing the key medical test, which is a wrist X-ray for bone age assessment.

Of the 378 individuals who underwent the test, only 112 were confirmed as minors, while 266 were determined to be adults — approximately 70 percent.

The number of detected frauds tripled compared to the prior year. Since 2018, Madrid has handled more than 11,000 unaccompanied foreign minors in its protection system. In 2024 alone, 2,442 new young people entered the system. The regional government has already filed 29 police complaints after its own checks revealed adults improperly placed in minor-protection facilities.

Nationally, the Fiscalía General del Estado reported 7,562 pre-procedural age-determination cases in 2024. Of these, 2,457 concluded the individuals were adults, while many others either abandoned proceedings or received the benefit of the doubt.

Real benefits for fraud

As Remix News has reported in the past, claiming minor status grants significant advantages under Spanish and EU rules, including placement in specialized protection centers with housing, education, healthcare, and legal safeguards.

There is also significantly greater difficulty in deportation; and, in many cases, pathways to family reunification or residence permits unavailable to adults. Many claimants disappear from centers once age verification begins, avoiding confirmation of their true age.

Similar fraud seen across Europe

This Madrid revelation is far from unique. Remix News has extensively covered parallel cases of age fraud by migrants claiming unaccompanied minor status throughout Europe, often involving the same nationalities, notably Algerians, Moroccans, Tunisians, and Afghans.

France has seen some of the starkest figures. In the Marne department, bone analyses of 240 individuals claiming to be unaccompanied minors found that 80 percent (192 people) were actually adults.

French MP Charles de Courson highlighted the financial burden in a parliamentary speech, “Eighty percent of unaccompanied migrants in France’s northeast Marne department who declared themselves thus are not minors, with the cost of caring for these 160 false minors costing €5,000 per month, which equals for €60,000 per year for each one.”

A separate 2019 experiment by the Paris prosecutor’s office examined 154 formally identified “minors” and found 91.6 percent (141) were adults via medical exams. Prosecutors noted that adults were systematically exploiting the protective regime established for minors under a 1945 law.

Belgium reported comparable results. A study of data from Justice Minister Koen Geens showed that of 4,563 migrants declaring themselves minors, authorities doubted 2,546 claims. Age tests on a sample revealed that 73.7 percent were over 18. Flemish MP Tom Van Grieken stated bluntly: “Asylum seekers guilty of age fraud should be denied the right to asylum.”

Sweden recorded an even higher rate: health authorities found 84 percent of tested “child migrants” were actually 18 or older. In Germany, forensic examinations in Münster showed around 40 percent of examined “unaccompanied minor refugees” were demonstrably adults, with many sharing suspicious January 1 birthdates — a common indicator of fabricated identities.

Remix News has also documented specific incidents in Spain itself that align with this pattern. In one Madrid case reported in October 2025, a Moroccan man accused of raping a 14-year-old girl claimed to be 17; age verification determined he was likely 23, with 14 prior convictions, leading to his case being transferred to adult court.

A European Parliament fact-finding mission to Spain’s Canary Islands similarly found that roughly half of unaccompanied minors there were actually adults, highlighting failures in age assessment amid high illegal arrivals.

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Madrid Requests European Army

Spain’s latest position perfectly illustrates what has become one of the great contradictions within NATO. Madrid wants Europe to build its own military capable of acting independently of Washington, yet Spain has consistently resisted NATO’s higher defense spending targets while expecting the alliance to continue providing collective security.

Spain is again championing the idea of a European army while insisting it can meet its NATO obligations without matching the spending commitments accepted by virtually every other member. Europe cannot demand strategic independence while simultaneously asking someone else to pay the bill.

I have said for years that Europe has always dreamed of becoming an independent military power. Long before the war in Ukraine, Brussels was discussing a unified European army, common procurement, centralized command, and eventually a foreign policy independent of Washington. Every crisis has been used to advance that objective. The migration crisis expanded Brussels’ authority. COVID centralized health policy. The Ukraine war accelerated fiscal integration through joint borrowing and massive defense spending. Now the argument is that Europe needs its own army because it can no longer rely entirely on the United States. That has been the destination all along.

Ironically, Spain is making the argument while remaining one of NATO’s weakest contributors. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez rejected the alliance’s new goal of spending 5% of GDP on defense by 2035, insisting Spain can fulfill its obligations while spending only about 2.1% of GDP. That position has frustrated allies who argue collective defense cannot function if some members continually expect others to shoulder the burden. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has repeatedly argued that Europe’s security environment now requires substantially greater investment across the alliance.

Europe must ultimately decide what it wants. If it genuinely intends to build an independent military capable of defending the continent without American leadership, then it must also accept the enormous financial burden that comes with that decision. A modern European army would require hundreds of billions of euros in new spending, integrated command structures, common procurement, expanded ammunition production, satellite capabilities, cyber warfare, missile defense, logistics, and nuclear deterrence. None of that comes cheaply.

The greatest long-term strategic challenge is no longer Europe. It is the Indo-Pacific. China is rapidly expanding its navy, modernizing its nuclear arsenal, increasing pressure on Taiwan, and competing directly with the United States across technology, manufacturing, shipping, and finance. America cannot simultaneously concentrate the majority of its military resources in Europe while preparing for a potential confrontation in Asia.

If Europe believes Russia represents its primary existential threat, then Europe should take primary responsibility for confronting Russia. That is neither anti-European nor isolationist. It is simply strategic reality. The United States should remain an ally, but not Europe’s permanent security guarantor. Washington has carried that burden since the end of the Second World War. Meanwhile, European governments repeatedly criticize American foreign policy while relying upon American aircraft carriers, intelligence, logistics, nuclear deterrence, and taxpayers whenever a genuine crisis emerges.

The post-1945 order is fragmenting. Nations are increasingly pursuing regional spheres of influence rather than a single American-led global system. Europe seeks strategic autonomy. China seeks dominance in Asia. Russia seeks influence over its near abroad. The United States must decide where its vital interests truly lie. If Europe wants its own army, then let Europe build it. America’s focus should increasingly shift toward maintaining stability in the Pacific, where the balance of power over the next several decades is far more likely to determine the future of the global economy than another generation of underwriting European defense.

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Spain instructs state-backed companies to avoid new Palantir contracts

Spain just told Palantir to pack its bags. Or at least, to stop unpacking new ones.

On July 1, the Spanish government issued a directive through SEPI, the state holding company that oversees the country’s publicly owned enterprises, instructing its portfolio companies to avoid entering new contracts with Palantir Technologies. The reason: concerns over classified national security information and what officials see as risks to national sovereignty.

The directive targets firms operating in defense, communications, and infrastructure. We’re talking about heavyweights like Telefónica, defense contractor Indra, and naval shipbuilder Navantia.

What’s actually happening

Here’s the thing: this isn’t technically a ban. It’s not legislation. It’s not even a formal regulation.

It’s more like a strongly worded internal memo with teeth. SEPI is directing the companies it controls to exercise “vigilance” regarding sensitive data, which in practice means no new Palantir contracts.

That distinction matters. Existing contracts remain intact, at least for now. Palantir’s most notable Spanish deal, a contract worth approximately €16.5 million with CIFAS (the Centro de Inteligencia de las Fuerzas Armadas, Spain’s military intelligence center), runs through November 2026. So the company isn’t getting kicked out mid-project. It’s just not being invited back.

The company, co-founded by Peter Thiel and led by CEO Alex Karp, has long positioned itself as the Western world’s answer to authoritarian surveillance tech.

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A Huge Scandal Breaks Out In Spain: 400,000 “Refugees” Claiming Refugee Status DON’T EVEN LIVE IN SPAIN!

Sánchez’s Socialist Open-Borders Bonanza Turns Into the Biggest Immigration Fraud in European History

While Europe is being overrun and native citizens are pushed to the back of the line, Spain’s far-left Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has just presided over one of the most blatant immigration scams ever recorded on the continent.

According to explosive reports from Spanish National Police sources published by El Español and Breitbart, over 400,000 of the staggering 1.3 million amnesty applications come from migrants who weren’t even living in Spain before the January 1, 2026 cutoff date.

That’s right. The Sánchez regime hyped this “regularization” as a compassionate fix for roughly 500,000–800,000 illegals supposedly already inside the country. Instead, they got flooded with 1.3 million claims — and police insiders are now confirming that nearly one-third are fraudulent ghosts who crossed into Spain from France, Italy, or elsewhere in Schengen just to cash in on the free papers.

Organized Fraud on an Industrial Scale

Documents required to “prove” five months of continuous presence — utility bills, bus tickets, rental contracts, empadronamiento registrations — are being openly sold on Telegram and Instagram black markets. Criminal networks have turned the entire process into a lucrative business, shuttling migrants across Europe to exploit this one-time socialist giveaway.This isn’t “integration.”

This is a manufactured invasion enabled by a government that apparently can’t — or won’t — tell the difference between people who were already there and opportunists gaming the system.

The Spanish Police aren’t even in charge of verifying the applications (that joyful task falls to the ultra-progressive Ministry of Inclusion). So while officers on the ground watch the chaos in real time, the Sánchez regime will spend the next three months pretending to “review” files that never should have been accepted in the first place.

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So, How’s Spain’s Mass Amnesty Working Out?

Half a million.

That’s the number that made headlines in April when Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist government approved plans to grant legal status to 500,000 illegal migrants.

But a leaked police report warned that the true number could be much higher, estimating that between 750,000 and 1 million illegal migrants living in Spain could apply for amnesty, in addition to 250,000 to 350,000 asylum seekers. The report described the amnesty plan’s “very intense media impact, especially in Latin America” and warned of a “highly relevant pull factor,” which we will return to in a moment.

The conservative Popular Party (PP) also disputed the government’s estimates, saying the true number could be double and calling the plan an “outrage.” Sánchez, whom The Economist has called the leader of Europe’s anti-Trump resistance, anticipating such criticism, wrote in a New York Times op-ed in January that “MAGA-style leaders may say that our country can’t handle taking in so many migrants — that this is a suicidal move, the desperate act of a collapsing country.”

Well, the numbers are starting to come in and, just as Joe Biden’s weak border enforcement in the U.S. created a “pull factor” that led to average monthly border crossings of over 100,000, Sánchez’s policies are having a similar magnet effect, far exceeding his government’s estimates. 

Even though the asylum application window remains open until June 30, 900,000 applications have already been submitted, a record number for Spain. The European Conservative reports that “approximately 350,000 additional applications have been submitted since the start of June, a surge that has caught authorities off guard.” The publication notes that these numbers are much higher than the last time mass amnesty was tried in Spain, in 2005 under the Socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who these days spends his time in court as the subject of a graft probe. Zapatero’s program granted 576,000 residence permits from 691,000 applications received.

Sánchez, of course, looks at every new immigrant as a potential future voter who won’t care about the mind-boggling corruption within his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). As increasing numbers of Spaniards take to the streets to demand the prime minister’s resignation, Muslim migrants are among his most loyal supporters. In the video below, we meet a Muslim store owner a minute in, with a poster of Sánchez on his shop wall, who says Muslims are “100%” going to vote for  the prime minister if they become citizens. Why? Because he “stands with Iran and Palestine.” Indeed he does.

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Name of Spanish PM Sánchez Found in the Diary of Leire Díez, Accused of Influence Peddling, Bribery, Obstruction of Justice, Fraud, Document forgery and Embezzlement

Díez is also accused of trying to derail the corruption case against Sánchez’s brother.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro better have enjoyed the days he spent in the company of leftist Pope Leo XIV, because those moments of positive agenda didn’t last.

We have been reporting on how the Socialist ‘leader’ is embroiled in an array of corruption scandals and prosecutions that have so far ensnared his brother, his wife, several of his key allies – notably the former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

Now, as the days when the Pope treated him like a pop star fade in the past, Sánchez is being dragged to the center of the investigations against a former Socialist Party member, director of public companies, Leire Díez.

Díez is accused of a dizzying list of crimes, such as influence peddling, bribery, obstruction of justice, fraud, document forgery, and embezzlement.

And today (15), it arises that Spanish police have identified the initials ‘P.S.’ that occur several times in Díez’s diary with the prime minister, as they investigate efforts to derail the case against Sánchez’s brother.

Euronews reported:

“A personal diary seized from Leire Díez, a former member of Spain’s ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), contains at least four references to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, according to a report by the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard. In that report, the UCO said that the initials ‘P.S.’ that appear repeatedly in Díez’s notebooks refer to Sánchez. That identification comes via an entry in which Díez herself refers to David Sánchez, the prime minister’s brother, as ‘brother of P.S.’.”

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Spanish Gov. Consoles Native-Born Locals — Migrants Are ‘Healthier’ Than You

Migrants have “better health” than Spaniards and thus use fewer public healthcare resources than the native-born population, Spain’s socialist government claims through a study published by its own health ministry

According to Spanish Health Minister Mónica García, the study states that migrants in Spain make fewer use of the nation’s healthcare system, medications, and have a lower prevalence of chronic diseases than the native-born population — who are attributed by the document of using a more “intensive” use of their own country’s healthcare resources.

The study, titled, “Health Status and Use of the Healthcare System Among the Migrant Population in Spain” was presented by García on Monday. According to the La Moncloa presidential palace, the document contains a study that analyses the “health reality” of foreign-born individuals in Spain. Furthermore, the government of socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez claimed that the study “confirms” the “Healthy Immigrant Effect” theory, which states that migrants have a health advantage over native-born individuals.

García, in remarks during the report’s presentation, claimed that the study makes the prevailing narrative surrounding migration and its pressure on the nation’s healthcare system “not hold up.”

In a post sharing her own remarks on social media, García claimed “We dismantle the narrative of hate with data” and that “universality is not only fairer, it also saves money for the healthcare system.”

“The migrant population uses the healthcare system less than the native-born population,” García affirmed on Monday. “Native-born individuals make greater use of the system at virtually every level of care: in primary care, they have more visits, undergo more procedures, consume more medications, and have a higher prevalence of chronic diseases.”

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SOCIALISTS GOING DOWN: Spanish Anti-Corruption Police Raid the Headquarters of PM Sánchez’s PSOE Party in Probe of Illegal Funding

The Spanish Socialists are crumbling under multiple corruption investigations.

Today (24), Spanish anti-corruption police have raided the headquarters of PM Pedro Sánchez’s socialist PSOE party.

This is yet another damaging development in a season of scandals that have sparked talks about the government having to resign and hold snap elections later this year.

Visegrad24 on Telegram:

“The agents were sent to secure evidence for an ongoing probe into the alleged illegal financing of the country’s ruling party.

The raid comes just days after the socialist former PM José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was indicted on corruption charges linked to the Venezuelan regime.

Today’s raid is linked to an unrelated investigation overseen by Spain’s Anti-Corruption Prosecutor.

Many in the closest circle around PM Sanchez, including his wife and brother, are already under criminal investigation for corruption.”

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Tens of Thousands Protest in Madrid Demanding Resignation of Socialist Prime Minister Sánchez

Spaniards took to the streets of Madrid in their thousands on Saturday to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in the wake of the latest corruption scandal to rock his Socialist Workers’ Party.

Gathering under the banner “Sánchez, resign now!”, protesters flooded central Madrid, marching from the Plaza de Colón to the Victory Arch. According to government estimates, some 40,000 people attended; however, organisers claimed that upwards of 120,000 took part in the demonstration, public broadcaster RTVS reported.

The protest was held in the wake of former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero being indicted this week for alleged influence peddling and money laundering from Venezuela amid the €53 million ($57.2 million) public bailout of the Plus Ultra airline following the Chinese coronavirus crisis.

Zapatero, who has long faced criticism over his close ties to Venezuelan socialist dictators Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, is alleged to have received €1.95 million ($2.11 million) for himself and his inner circle in the claimed influence peddling scheme.

It is just the latest corruption scandal to hit a major figure within the governing Socialist Party of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, whose own wife, Begoña Gómez, is currently facing charges of influence peddling and embezzlement over claims that she used her position as first lady to benefit her business associates.

Amid the scandals, Sánchez has apparently sought to distract from his domestic woes by casting himself as an opponent to U.S. President Donald Trump on the world stage, by barring American troops from using bases in Spain during the Iran conflict.

At the protest on Saturday, the leader of the right-wing populist VOX party, Santiago Abascal, called on Zapatero to be held in prison during his trial and for Prime Minsiter Sánchez to be compelled to testify.

“There is no one left in Pedro Sánchez’s entourage who is not accused of very serious crimes,” Abascal said, lamenting that his country has been “kidnapped by a corrupt mafia that is impoverishing the Spanish people.”

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Another Spanish Socialist Charged With Money Laundering and Influence Peddling – Former Prime Minister and Key Sánchez Ally, Zapatero Has His Offices Raided by Police

Socialists in Spain are floundering.

Still reeling from the successive electoral defeats, embattled Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his Socialist party have another problem to deal with: his key ally (and former Prime Minister) José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has been raided by the police and charged with money laundering, influence peddling and other criminal offenses.

The alleged crimes were committed in connection with the 2021 bailout of Plus Ultra airlines.

This comes as Sánchez’s brother, wife and main PSOE leaders are all being investigated or under indictment for corruption or for sexual harassment.

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