Spain’s National Police have issued a nationwide warning after detecting a sharp rise in allegedly fraudulent reports of lost or stolen passports.
Police investigators suspect that some undocumented migrants may be deliberately filing these reports in order to establish an official record proving their presence in Spain before the residency eligibility deadline.
The alert was circulated by the General Commissariat for Foreigners and Border Control (CGEF), which links the spike directly to the government’s announcement on 27 January of an extraordinary regularisation programme.
Under the new decree, migrants who can demonstrate that they were living in Spain before 31 December 2025 may apply for legal residency. ALSO READ: Spain to grant legal status to around 500,000 undocumented migrants.
Since that announcement, officers say they have identified a ‘significant increase in reports’.
‘A preliminary analysis of this occurrence compares the period from 15 January to 6 February 2025 with the same period in 2026,’ the police said.
According to the analysis, reports of lost or stolen passports have risen by around 60% overall. Officers have also been able to determine which nationalities are most frequently filing such reports.
The steepest increase has been recorded among Pakistani nationals, with reports rising by 866.67%. This is followed by Algerians, up 356.35%, Moroccans in third place at 114%, and Colombians at 35%. These figures prompted the launch of a full investigation, which police experts have now completed.
‘The information available to the CGEF suggests that, within the bounds of this exceptional regularisation process, this practice could be used as a means of accrediting presence on Spanish territory during the period covered by this process,’ the official report states.
Police also note that full identity checks carried out on foreign nationals reporting losses or thefts uncovered multiple irregularities in many cases.
These included criminal or police records in Spain or abroad, the use of identities different from those declared as lost or stolen, and outstanding administrative decisions relating to immigration status.
Based on these findings, investigators recommend that undocumented foreign nationals reporting lost or stolen documents should undergo full identification procedures, with their legal status in Spain carefully verified.
Concerns over the impact of the mass regularisation announcement have also been voiced by police unions. One of them, Jupol, said the situation ‘demonstrates the cause and effect that we have been warning about since the announcement of the extraordinary regularisation of foreigners’.
‘It is unacceptable that the National Police is being used as a tool to facilitate regularisation processes through alleged and fraudulent reports, undermining the police function and further overwhelming already strained immigration teams and staffing levels,’ Jupol said.
The union further condemned the fact that officers ‘are involved in situations that could be a cover for administrative fraud’. It concluded by stating: ‘We demand clear and forceful measures to protect both the legality and professionalism of the National Police. We also flag up the legal insecurity that Jupol also denounced before the announcement of this extraordinary process.’
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El fraude del pasaporte perdido: la Policía envía una alerta nacional al detectar engaños en la regularización de extranjeros, vía @abc_es
Jupol, ha denunciado que este oficio «evidencia el efecto llamada que venimos advirtiendo desde que se anunció la regularización… pic.twitter.com/bZ3bnIra70
— JUPOL (@JupolNacional) February 12, 2026
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