Spanish police have begun deporting hundreds of immigrants who live in a school building in a slum in northern Barcelona. Most of the immigrants do not have legal documents.
When the eviction was carried out on the basis of a court order, most of the immigrants had left. They knew about the operation carried out by members of the Catalan police complete with anti-riot equipment.
The dilapidated building is located in Badalona, a working-class town bordering Barcelona. Many sub-Saharan migrants, mostly from Senegal and Gambia, have moved into the empty school building since it was abandoned in 2023.
"As I promised, the eviction of the illegal slum inhabited by 400 people at the B9 school in Badalona begins," said Badalona Mayor, Xavier García Albiol, announcing the eviction on his X account, quoted from AP, Wednesday, December 17.
The lawyer representing the illegal immigrants, Marta Llonch, said that many of them live by selling old iron collected from the streets.
He added, some others have residence and work permits but are forced to live there because they can't afford to buy a house.
"Many people will sleep on the streets tonight," Llonch said.
"Just because you're kicking these people out doesn't mean they're going away. If you don't give them alternative housing, they're going to be on the streets now, which is going to be a problem for them and the city," he continued.
The mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol who is a cadre of Spain's conservative People's Party did indeed build his political career as an anti-immigrant figure.
The Badalona Regional Government, led by Albiol, argues that the homeless population is a danger to public safety.
In 2020, four migrants were killed and about a hundred others were injured in a fire in an old factory they were living in Badalona.
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