Spain’s Parliament’s lower house votes to back a bill that would grant Spanish citizenship to eligible Western Saharan residents born before a specified cutoff during the period of Spanish rule. After the approval, the proposal moves to the Spanish Senate for further consideration.
Both outlets describe the measure as aimed at Sahrawis who were born in Western Sahara while Spain administered the territory. Euronews reports that the number of potential beneficiaries is not definitively established, with estimates commonly placing eligibility around 80,000. It also notes wider figures—close to 200,000—if descendants are included. Al Jazeera specifies the cutoff as births before 1977, indicating the bill’s eligibility criteria are tied to that date.
The sources focus on different aspects of the same parliamentary process and population estimates. While the lower-house support is presented as a key procedural step, the outlets diverge on the scale of who could qualify due to differing calculations of beneficiaries and whether lineage is counted. The next stage is Senate review.
