Hidden in the Zona Franca, between factories and warehouses, far from tourist Barcelona, lies the Barcelona Centre for the Internment of Foreigners (CIE). Hundreds of people are held locked up in the facilities for a maximum of 60 days. “They spend weeks deprived of their freedom in very harsh conditions just for not having papers,” explains Cel Far, a social educator who has visited the detainees with the Migra Studium organization. The reality is that most of those who end up in the CIE have not committed any crime: last year, only 7% of detainees had been convicted.

The Generalitat de Catalunya, through Fira 2000, is negotiating the purchase of the offices in the administrative district of the Zona Franca from the company AXA, where various departments have been located since 2020. Three meetings have already taken place, and very soon, in May, there will be a fourth meeting. These negotiations aim to put an end to 11 years of shadows surrounding this operation promoted in 2015 by the owner of the Zona Franca land, Fira 2000, a commercial company whose majority shareholder (53.6%) is the Generalitat and which also includes the participation of the city councils of Barcelona and L'Hospitalet and the Diputació de Barcelona.

On Monday afternoon, knowing what would happen early the next morning, several people packed up their tents and set them up a few meters away before the "temporary" eviction of the 175 people living in squalid conditions in the encampment located on number 2 Street in the Zona Franca, the largest in Barcelona, ​​could be carried out. The City Council and the Zona Franca Consortium justify the action as a hygiene measure, following the detection of a rat infestation, which jeopardizes the health of the residents themselves and the safety of nearby businesses. Therefore, once the residents were evicted, the area was sprayed with various chemicals, and they were warned that they would not be allowed to return for a few days.

The Chinese group Chery aims to continue growing in Europe with the commercial launch of new models focused on the European B and C segments. These models, with bodies between 4.1 and 4.5 meters long, are for its commercial brands currently operating in the Old Continent, especially Omoda—the group's best-positioned brand, which will receive priority attention—and Jaecoo.

While the deadline for Nissan's reindustrialisation committee to decide which company will occupy the three factories the Japanese car manufacturer will leave at the end of the year in Catalonia is coming to an end, a new company has applied to move into the plants that will be left empty: Zona Franca, Montcada i Reixac and Sant Andreu de la Barca. This is the Belgian group specialising in automotive components Punch, which has specified its plans for the future to occupy the three facilities: to manufacture 46,100 hydrogen, electric and diesel vehicles in 2025 and reach 75,600 by 2030. In addition, the company expects to obtain patents for the Nissan's Navara pick-up truck to upgrade it to a hydrogen-powered combustion vehicle. At the same time, it plans to manufacture electric vehicles for the taxi sector based on the e-NV200 van, also from the Japanese company, and to develop its own brand of electric scooters produced in Barcelona.