Sponsored asylum applications filed in embassies and consulates: A model grounded on the Spanish experience and on the Canadian program «private sponsorship»

Abstract

For 25 years Spain allowed to seek asylum at its embassies and consulates. This legal route was closed with the entry into force of Law 12/2009, October 30, Regulating the Right of Asylum and Subsidiary Protection. Eight years later, under the greatest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, it is necessary to construe a proposal that re-enables a legal and safe way for refugees to seek protection in Europe preventing them from having to resort to mafias and smugglers to cross the Mediterranean Sea. In this paper, after analysing the legal basis and viability of lodging asylum applications in diplomatic missions, it will be proposed to accommodate the Canadian “Private Sponsorship of Refugees” programme to the Spanish legal framework to shape up a regime sponsored by the civil society which will allow refugees to seek asylum in Spain from abroad.