Antoni Bassas' analysis: 'Badalona eviction, a failure of all administrations'

This morning, the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) evicted the building that formerly housed the B9 high school in Badalona.

400 people were living in squalor.The vast majority are undocumented, the kind who collect scrap metal in the streets, at construction sites, and from dumpsters, because they can't get a contract. You can imagine the scenes: the evicted people packing suitcases, bags, or bundles and leaving quickly, many afraid of being arrested and having their irregular status exposed, dozens of Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) in helmets, boots, and batons acting, and a few hundred people protesting the police action, while the situation worsens, and unemployment begins for the 400 illegal squatters of building B9 in Badalona.

This morning's spectacle (so to speak) is a collective failure. A question for the City Council and the Ministry of the Interior: if the public building (which, by the way, is supposed to become a police station) was uninhabitable, why was it allowed to be occupied? A question for social services: if it was known that sooner or later these people would have to be evicted (because it's clear that these people couldn't live in squalor in building B9), why was there no plan for where they would go, no temporary shelter, no facilities? Just an eviction order that puts 400 people on the street. Another 400 people on the streets, of which there are already many, in Catalonia, especially in the Barcelona area.

We are living in a housing emergencyWorkers, young people, even what used to be called the middle class, can barely afford to rent or buy property. And to make matters worse, thousands of undocumented immigrants from all over the world are now unable to find shelter.

What will these people from Badalona do today to afford a roof over their heads? Will they turn to crime? He burned down a settlement under the Bac de Roda bridge in Barcelona. There's another one, La Sagrera, on the land where the new train station for the northern entrance to Barcelona is already being built, causing health and safety problems for the neighbors. Catalonia is under the same immigration pressure as major urban areas around the world. What does Albiol want? To kick them out of Badalona and send them to Barcelona? What does the Catalan government want? For those evicted to simply disperse into the streets of the country? What does the Spanish government want, a supply of dirt-cheap undocumented labor? This can't be solved with the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) and evictions. The authorities need to address this issue, which only wins votes when it's approached with a heavy hand, because integration is slow and expensive. If they can't take in all the world's misery, if they can't protect them with their resources, then action is necessary. What's unacceptable is doing nothing, hoping another administration will take the blame. In the long run, inaction creates bigger problems. And that's why I believe all administrations have failed today.

Good morning.