In recent years, there has been a hidden debate within society and national security forces and units about the relationship between specific crime types and the proportion of foreign nationals involved.
Taboos driven by racism and xenophobia mean that neither the Interior Ministry nor local police identify the origins of people who commit crimes in Spain in their annual crime reports.
That unwritten rule was broken this week. On Wednesday, Elzainza, following the instructions of Security Councilor Bingen Zupilia (PNV), published the first statistical report clarifying the geographical origins of people who commit crimes in the Basque Country.
These data are included in crime statistics for the first nine months of 2025.
The report comes at a time when public awareness of insecurity in the Basque Country is increasing and it is a matter of grave concern. In cities like Bilbao, it is already a primary concern.
various PNV positions, Inigo Ansorachairman of the party’s territorial executive in Vizcaya, supported efforts to make this type of data public, calling it “appropriate.”
The most relevant novelty is that the report shows that of the 5,230 detainees in 2025, 64% were foreigners, compared to 36% Spaniards.
In absolute terms, Basque police arrested 3,358 foreign-born nationals on criminal charges in the first nine months of the year.
Regarding crimes against sexual freedom, Elzainza counted 172 detainees on suspicion of sexual assault during the year, of whom 117 were foreigners (49 from Maghreb countries and 47 from Latin America) and 55 from Spain.
In the murder case, 23 foreigners accounted for 60% of the total arrested.
Theft and robbery also show the presence of foreign-born people. From January to September, Elzainza arrested 414 people on suspicion of theft, including 341 foreigners and 73 Spaniards. In the same typology, 5,645 people appear as survey subjects (2,718 Spaniards and 2,927 foreigners).
A total of 460 people (317 foreigners and 145 Spaniards) were arrested for robbery involving property (robbery in homes, businesses, and stores), and the number of people investigated was 917 (470 foreigners and 447 Spaniards).
By origin, the majority of those born in other countries come from the Maghreb (251 people detained and 344 under investigation), followed by people from Latin America.
Regarding one of the most alarming crimes, robbery with violence and intimidation, Elzainza registered 437 detainees. Of these, 358 were foreigners and 79 were Spanish. 74% are foreigners.
In this chapter, the largest number of foreign nationals are once again Maghreb countries (293 people detained and 230 people being investigated), followed by Latin America (35 people detained and 47 people being investigated).
police debate
The disclosure of these data caused controversy.
The Spanish Police Federation (CEP) supports the new information policy and believes that this is part of the transparency that authorities should provide. “Pure data only describes another part of the offender’s profile,” the union said.
They added that disclosing nationality does not violate rights such as publicity or privacy and maintains the presumption of innocence.
“Crime statistics have an exclusively technical element. The fact that each reported arrest reveals the nationality of the alleged perpetrator does not make anyone a criminal. Especially when the government has argued and defended the lack of a causal relationship between both factors.” they added.
Jupol also praised the report, seeing it as an advance in transparency, “institutional maturity” and accountability, as long as it is managed with rigor, context and respect for fundamental rights. “Data is knowledge, and knowledge produces better public decisions,” the union argues.
The group warns that “publication of security data must be complemented with comparative analysis, social context and clear technical standards to ensure that the information is useful to society and avoids misinterpretation.”
Labor unions have a similar opinion. Ertzaintza Expert (SiPE): “Hiding this reality behind diffuse categories neither contributes to crime prevention nor to honest debate. It all points to an attempt to gloss over numbers that have proven structural problems for years.”
internal report
Interior Minister Fernando Grande Marlasca has always decoupled the link between immigration and crime in his public interventions.
” “According to official data, traditional crime rates have shown a downward trend in the face of a sustained increase in the immigrant population in recent years,” he told Parliament this Wednesday.
However, as published by EL ESPAÑOL, five Department of State Security (DSN) reports prepared over the past six years warn that mass immigration procedures can lead to crime and security problems.
These documents are based on data from the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the CNI and other agencies, and address the possibility that, without criminalizing migrants, criminal structures and power relations imported from their countries of origin can be reproduced in receiving countries.
The link between migration and crime is also emphasized in the so-called National Maritime Security Strategy 2024. This report is warned about the possibility that state or non-state actors may useUncontrollable wave of irregular immigration“As a tool for hybrid strategy,
The aim is to create a strategic vulnerability for Spain, with clear reference to Morocco, which uses migration as an element of pressure against our country.
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