Xenophobic attack at a Madrid shelter after a resident was arrested for rape.

BarcelonaThe arrest of a migrant minor residing at a shelter in the Madrid district of Hortaleza for sexually assaulting an underage girl has sparked a new social and political conflict, with the immigration debate in the spotlight. The alleged rape occurred early Friday morning in a park near the shelter, and a judge ordered the arrested man to be placed in a closed detention center. This Sunday night, however, an allegedly xenophobic attack was also reported near the same shelter: two hooded individuals attacked two minors residing at the center and a third adult who was accompanying them.

While the police investigate whether the two incidents are related, the conflict has already spilled into the political sphere: Madrid's president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has said that these minors "are more aggressive every day" and Vox has arrived at the shelter to clear their minds from "their country." "And the Sánchez government's response is to multiply their arrivals," Ayuso said, along the same lines.

In response to these accusations, the Spanish government, through its delegate in the Community of Madrid, Francisco Martín, condemned the sexual assault, but also called for "vulnerable groups not to be criminalized." "In Madrid, there have been 256 rapes so far this year, and some have only been interested in one," he added. According to the Spanish government, this campaign by some political parties has already had consequences: "Hate speech ends up being expressed in hate crimes, which is what we have seen," he said regarding the attack that took place in Hortaleza two days later, when the two hooded men "assaulted and beat" two minors. One of them had to be hospitalized, although he has since been discharged. In July of this year An attack on an elderly man in Torre Pacheco was also capitalized on by racist rhetoric, leading to serious riots.

Expulsion of migrants

The political clash hasn't limited itself to cross statements. The Community of Madrid requested that the person arrested for the sexual assault and 37 other minors at the center, which is owned by the same community, be expelled from the country due to their lack of integration. The announcement came shortly after the sexual assault case became known, and was made public by the Regional Minister of Family, Youth, and Social Affairs, Ana Dávila.

Vox's reaction has also been to call a demonstration for this Tuesday in front of the center. "This girl is a victim of Sánchez's policies, a victim of the two-party system's migration policies," said its leader, Santiago Abascal, and then criticized the NGO Open Arms, which he described as a "slave" ship. This is not the first time the far-right party has targeted the reception center.

In the spotlight

The Hortaleza shelter is located in that same northeast Madrid neighborhood, a residential area with a household income above the Madrid average. The center's foundation stone was laid in 1986, but the controversy didn't arise until thirty years later, when complaints of overcrowding began: there were 35 places but more than 100 residents. This even led the Prosecutor's Office to open a case against the Community of Madrid for the center's management.

Vox then began using this center as a weapon against the Madrid government, and has frequented it in many of the election campaigns in recent years. Its presence at the center intensified starting in 2019, during the regional election campaign, which Ayuso ultimately won. That same year, there were protests at the center, an attempted break-in, and also an attack whose grenade failed to explode. In November of last year, Vox proposed to the Madrid City Council that residents of this center be banned from sitting at bus stops.