About half a million descendants of those who fled the Spanish Civil War and the dictatorship of General Franco will finally be granted Spanish nationality. Spain’s Socialist Government approved the measure as part of the controversial Law of Historical Memory, designed finally to offer justice to the victims and their families of the civil war and the dictatorship.

Hundreds of thousands left Spain because of their sympathies with the defeated Republican Government or to escape the desperate economic hardship after the Civil War.

About 300,000 of those thought to be eligible now live in Argentina, while large contingents remain in Russia, Mexico and France. A smaller group came to Britain.

To qualify, they will have to present their birth certificates and those of their parents or grandparents. They must also demonstrate that their relatives received pensions granted to exiles or took part in some work for refugees from Franco’s Spain.

Among those who could apply is Michael Portillo, the former Tory Cabinet minister, whose Republican father fled Franco’s regime.

Natalia Benjamin, 64, from Oxford – whose mother Cecilia Gurich left Spain in 1937 as Franco’s troops advanced – said: “I will definitely apply for Spanish citizenship for sentimental reasons. But some like me may not have their parents’ birth certificates as they had to leave in a hurry.”

Maria José Sanchez, co-ordinator of the Spanish Centre for Senior Citizens in London, said that about 3,000 descendants of exiles in Britain could apply for Spanish nationality. “Many will do it before they die. They have felt forgotten about, but this is recognition for them,” she said.

Among famous exiles who came to Britain were Alberdi, the sculptor, and Pirmin Trecu, the Royal Ballet dancer. Others included the artist Pablo Picasso and Luis Buñuel, the film director.

Some were angry yesterday at the way in which this measure had finally been brought in – 72 years after the start of the Civil War.

Ludvinia GarcÍa, president of the Association of Descendents of Exiles, said: “It concerns us that the mixture of economic emigration and exiles could confuse young people with respect to the concept of exile. Exile was political, not economic.”

Guillermo GarcÍa, co-ordinator of the Spanish Sons and Grandsons group in Argentina, said: “Those who emigrated before 1936 are discriminated against [by this measure]. The biggest emigration towards America happened before 1936.”

The offer to relatives of those who left Spain came after the surviving members of the International Brigades who fought for the Republic in the Civil War were given the chance to apply for Spanish nationality.

Among those will be eligible for Spanish passports are the descendants of the so-called “war children” who were evacuated to the Soviet Union during the Civil War. According to the Centro Español in Moscow, there are 315 “war children” in Russia who, with their own children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren, form a community of to 1,200 to 1,300 people.

Of the approximately 32,000 Republican children who were evacuated to other countries during the Civil War, 3,000 went to the Soviet Union. The Kremlin backed the forces of Spain’s elected Government against the rebels led by General Franco, who were supported in their ultimately victorious fight by Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy.

The Soviet Government helped those children to retain their language and culture, and provided them with education and professional training, but – in contrast to their fellow exiles in other countries – Moscow did not allow them to return to Spain when the Civil War ended.

Three years after the death of Stalin in 1953, however, the USSR allowed the repatriation of the Spaniards and 60 per cent of them returned to Spain.

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