MADRID - Some 600,000 immigrant workers will have taken advantage of a three-month Spanish government program to regularise their status by the time the scheme comes to a close Saturday, according to provisional government figures.
Local associations, political parties and the Church have sought to have the scheme extended without success but the Socialist government is standing by its three-month limit to give papers to those immigrants in a move designed to clamp down on the black economy.
A month ago Secretary of State for Immigration Consuelo Rumi said that "every job which exits the parallel economy is a triumph for this process" as "they will be people who will pay taxes and contribute towards social security."
Rumi said Thursday that prolonging the scheme was impossible without a special royal decree to that effect.
Official figures put the total of unregistered non-Spanish nationals based in Spain at 1.7 million.
Under the terms of the deal immigrants will only benefit if they have work contracts and had been living in the country six months before the program took effect.
They must provide proof of their registration with a local council dating back to before August 7 last year, show they have no criminal record and possess at least a six-month work contract.
Most of those who have benefited are Ecuadorians (24.45 percent), Romanians (16.59), Moroccans (11.56) and Colombians (9.67).
The El Pais daily calculated earlier this week that those who have taken the opportunity to obtain legal status will inject monthly 118 million euros (153 million dollars) in social security contributions.
However, the conservative opposition Popular Party has criticised the scheme and some of Spain's EU neighbours have also expressed fears that some of those who legalise their status could go on to seek work in another EU state.
Spain has traditionally been a country of emigration but in recent years the trend has reversed and 8.4 percent of the 44 million population are non-Spaniards according to provisional figures dating from January.
05/05/2005 16:21 GMT