Scammed and at risk of losing the room she shares

Tarragona“I could ask my family for money, but you come here to earn money, not to ask for it,” explains Andrea Tristancho. She is 32 years old and a couple of years ago decided to leave Boyacá (Colombia) to try her luck abroad. Restless, curious, and eager to make her way. In the suitcase with which she arrived in Madrid in October 2024, she carried a student visa with a work permit, in addition to a degree in spatial design and also in commercial and financial administration. In the Spanish capital, she also took an MBA in Business Management to further broaden her education.

First thing in the morning, Tristancho queues at the Showers Breakfast and Warmth service offered by Cáritas in Tarragona. She doesn't feel very safe there. Most are men, some calm, others with addictions, and many with mental disorders. “Once they fought in the queue right in front of me and I got very scared,” she says. Her life became complicated when she arrived in Tarragona, where she had some acquaintances. She found a job in a coffee shop franchise that sells bread and also found a girl from Tarragona who rented her a room in the apartment where she lived. She earned 1,266 euros a month and paid 350 euros for the room, plus water, electricity, and internet expenses. Within the instability that migration implies, everything seemed more or less in order, but her life took a turn.

Failed marriage

Her flatmate proposed to her to get married to her to solve the visa issue, which needs to be renewed annually, and she agreed. Having a job, albeit precarious, and having studied in Madrid, she wasn't under pressure to lose her visa, but it seemed like a good way to permanently resolve this problem. Fixing her papers had a price: 2,000 euros. Andrea gave all her savings to her flatmate and future wife, but the marriage was never celebrated. When she saw that she had been deceived, she filed a complaint at the Mossos d’Esquadra police station and discovered that the woman was a scammer and already had a record for similar cases. Because misfortunes never come alone, Andrea fell off her scooter five months ago while going to work and tore her knee ligaments. According to her, the company paid her half of her salary for the next two months after the accident and in the third month they didn't make any payment. She has also reported them. Unfortunately, Andrea's case is not an exception and many immigrants suffer scams that impoverish them even further. The court-appointed lawyers she has for both cases tell her that everything will be fine, that she can get her money back, but her reality is that she is far from home, on sick leave, without a network or money, and time is wearing her down. “I could work under the table, without being in the public eye, but I don't want them to walk all over me. I was raised that way,” she says.

Andrea has recently found another room and now shares a flat with Mercè, a woman from Tarragona with whom she gets along very well. The municipal social services paid her the first month's rent — and she is very grateful — but they made it clear to her that from now on she has to cover it herself. Mercè is understanding and has become everything that Andrea has, but the months go by and the money doesn't come in.