People · 5 min read
Red Acoge at 30 — the Spanish migrant-rights network, three decades on
A profile of Red Acoge on its 30th anniversary — twenty-plus member NGOs, 40,000 attendees a year, and the single largest independent voice on Spanish migration policy.
By Ana María Restrepo · February 14, 2025
Ana María Restrepo
Madrid Bureau · Madrid, ES
Red Acoge was founded in 1994 as a federation of local Spanish NGOs supporting migrants. Thirty years later it federates 21 member organisations, operates legal clinics in 11 Comunidades Autónomas, and attends over 40,000 beneficiaries a year — the single largest independent operational voice on Spanish migration policy.
This piece profiles Red Acoge on its 30th anniversary — the three generations of leadership, the moments the organisation shaped Spanish Extranjería law, and the current operational tension between the growing demand on its legal clinics and the structural underfunding of civil-society work on migration.