Spain is to legalise about 300,000 undocumented migrants a year – at a time that many European countries are seeking to limit or deter migration.

The policy, approved on Tuesday by Spain’s left-wing minority coalition government, aims to tackle the country’s ageing workforce and low birthrate.

Around 250,000 registered foreign workers a year are needed to maintain the country’s welfare state, according to migration minister Elma Saiz.

The scheme, due to run from May next year until 2027, will allow foreigners living in Spain without proper documentation to obtain work permits and residency.

The exact number of foreigners living in Spain without documentation is unclear.

However, around 54,000 undocumented migrants reached Spain so far this year by sea or land, according to government figures.

Many arrive via the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago located off the coast of northwestern Africa.

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The figure compares to the 30,000 people who have arrived in the UK via small boats across the Channel so far in 2024.

The UK, as well as other European nations, including Germany, France, and the Netherlands, have in recent years taken tougher stances on migration.

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However, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has often described his government’s migration policies as a way to combat the country’s low birthrate.

The government’s new policy simplifies the administrative processes for short and long-term visas and provides migrants with additional workplace protections.

It also extends a visa offered previously to job-seekers for three months to one year.

Many migrants make a living in Spain’s underground economy as fruit pickers, caretakers, delivery drivers, or other low-paid jobs.

Migration minister Ms Saiz said the government’s new policy would help prevent abuse and “serve to combat mafias, fraud and the violation of rights”.

The eldest son of Norway’s crown princess has appeared in court after being arrested on suspicion of rape.

Marius Borg Hoiby, 27, challenged a police request to put him in preventive detention while they investigate the claim.

Officers said he was arrested on Monday on suspicion of sex with “with someone who is unconscious or for other reasons unable to resist the act”.

Borg Hoiby’s lawyer, Oeyvind Bratlien, said his client is innocent. The hearing was held behind closed doors.

It is the second time in three months that Borg Hoiby has been arrested, as he was briefly detained by police on 4 August following a disturbance in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.

In that incident, he was named as a suspect of physical assault against a woman he had been in a relationship with.

Borg Hoiby later admitted causing the woman bodily harm while under the influence of cocaine and alcohol and damaging her apartment. He said he regretted the incident.

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Borg Hoiby is the son of Princess Mette-Marit from a previous relationship and the stepson of the heir to the Norwegian throne, Crown Prince Haakon.

However, he is outside the line of royal succession and has no title.

Crown Prince Haakon told Norwegian TV on Tuesday: “These are serious allegations Marius now faces, and we are of course thinking of all those affected.”

Alec Baldwin’s Western film Rust has premiered at a festival in Poland, three years after the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on set.

The movie debuted at the Camerimage Festival in Poland, an event focusing on achievements in cinematography, to an audience of a few hundred – a more low-key affair than the typical fanfare of Hollywood releases.

Director Joel Souza, who was wounded in the shooting, said he hoped the completed film would now be a tribute to Ms Hutchins – who died after a prop gun held by Baldwin went off during filming in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in October 2021.

Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter and went on trial in July – but the case was dismissed in dramatic fashion during the hearing after the prosecution was accused of concealing ammunition evidence.

The star did not attend the premiere in Poland.

Speaking beforehand, Souza said it “wasn’t an easy decision by any means” to continue the film after Hutchins’s death, “but it became important to me and important to her husband that people see her final work”.

The church scene they were working on when Hutchins was shot has gone from the film, he said.

“It doesn’t exist anymore. We were never going to finish that… I changed the script and so I wiped that out of it.”

Cinematographer’s mother criticises Baldwin

Bianca Cline, the cinematographer who completed the film, also attended the event.

Ms Hutchins’s mother Olga Solovey, who has filed a lawsuit against Baldwin, did not attend and criticised the star for allegedly “unjustly” profiting from the tragedy.

In a statement issued by her lawyer, Gloria Allred, she said she had always hoped to watch her daughter’s “work come alive on screen” alongside her.

However, this opportunity was “ripped away”, she said.

Ms Solovey said Baldwin had not apologised to her and that her pain was increased by his “refusal to take responsibility”. She said there had been “no justice” for her daughter.

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Rust’s armourer Hannah Gutierrez, who was in charge of weapons on the set, was jailed for 18 months earlier this year, after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter during a trial separate to Baldwin’s. She is appealing the sentence.

Rust is billed as the story of a 13-year-old boy who, left to fend for himself and his younger brother following their parents’ deaths in 1880s Wyoming, goes on the run with his long-estranged grandfather after being sentenced to hang for the accidental killing of a local rancher.

The Polish festival’s ticketing website reportedly crashed on Tuesday morning due to high demand for tickets to the world premiere.