The mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol, He requested authorization on Friday to evict the homeless people who live in squalor under the C-31 bridge. He says that no former residents of Institut B9 remain—where he carried out a controversial eviction that literally left dozens of vulnerable people out in the cold during a severe cold snap—because they have all now been rehoused. Many of those people, like those now seeking to be displaced again without any consideration, are undocumented immigrants who, in many cases, work precariously and have great difficulty finding a place to live. Either because they cannot afford it or because they simply do not want to rent. It is the vicious cycle for undocumented immigrants, and for many who are documented, who, despite having jobs, cannot find a way to access decent housing. Hence the settlements that are proliferating everywhere and that are returning to the Catalan, and Spanish, landscape the image of large camps of shacks without the most basic services.
The Albiol case is symptomatic of what is happening and sets a precedent that has repercussions throughout the country. Despite the uproar caused by the eviction, the situation now seems to have calmed down, and it could be interpreted that Albiol has gotten his way. And therein lies the problem, as explained, for example, by Joaqui Salord, the Jesuit who helps the hundreds of migrants living in the settlements near Almería's sea of plastic: "The Níjar City Council has already said it will eliminate the settlements, and if it has models like Badalona's, and nothing happens socially, it's dangerous," he argues.
This week, the agreement between the Spanish government and Podemos, which aims to regularize half a million undocumented immigrants, was announced. Although Vox and the PP oppose it, the truth is that business owners are fully in favor. They need immigrants to work, especially in low-value-added jobs, whether in tourism, the meat industry, or agriculture. We explained this today in our report on the "vegetable garden of Europe" in Almería, where there are some 35,000 hectares of greenhouses employing 100,000 people, almost 30% of whom are undocumented. But needing them doesn't mean they are given the conditions to at least live with dignity. If finding housing is already problematic for legal immigrants, for those without legal status the situation is dire.
Regularization, therefore, is a necessary first step. But another important step is to consider that all these people, who will further strain already stretched public services, will need a place to live at a time of severe housing crisis. In this sense, in addition to long-term policies, emergency measures are needed to provide a minimum of dignity even to these settlements, which, for some, are the only viable options for where to live, for the time being. It is clear that these settlements cannot become permanent and are not a medium-term solution, but these urgent needs cannot be left solely to charity or volunteers. As we recall from the post-Franco era of shantytowns, this is a matter of dignity and social justice.
