Spain to Ease Visa Rules to Find Workers to Clean Hotel Rooms

Spain's economy was among the worst hit in Europe during the pandemic, and now the government plans to make it easier for foreigners to obtain work visas so they can fill tourism-related jobs, including cleaning hotel rooms and waiting on tables in restaurants.

"We are evaluating different aspects of the migration law and where there is room to improve it ... in order to address bottlenecks in Spain's labor market," Social Security and Migration Minister Jose Luis Escriva said Friday, Reuters reported.

The government doesn't intend to merely target tourism with the work visa easing, but it was among the sectors the minister cited, along with tech, agriculture, and construction.

Among the plans is to permit some 50,000 students in the country from outside the European Union to combine their studies with working.

Spain projected earlier that its international arrivals would reach around 80 percent of pre-Covid numbers by June 2022.