Police in northeastern Spain have begun evicting hundreds of mostly undocumented migrants from an abandoned school building north of Barcelona.
The operation, carried out by Catalonia's regional police in riot gear, commenced early Wednesday morning under court orders. Many occupants had already vacated the premises, anticipating the action.
Located in Badalona, a working-class city bordering Barcelona, the B9 school had been home to numerous sub-Saharan migrants, predominantly from Senegal and Gambia, since its abandonment in 2023.
Badalona's mayor, Xavier García Albiol, confirmed the evictions on X, stating: "As I had promised, the eviction of the squat of 400 illegal squatters in the B9 school in Badalona begins."
Marta Llonch, a lawyer representing the squatters, highlighted that many earned a living by collecting scrap metal.
She added that some residents possessed valid residency and work permits but were compelled to live in the squat due to unaffordable housing.
“Many people are going to sleep on the street tonight,” Llonch told The Associated Press. “Just because you evict these people it doesn’t mean they disappear.
“If you don’t give them an alternative place to live they will now be on the street, which will be a problem for them and the city.”
García Albiol, of the conservative Popular Party, has built his political career as Badalona's long-standing mayor with an anti-immigration stance.
The Badalona town hall had argued that the squat was a public safety hazard. In 2020, an old factory occupied by around a hundred migrants in Badalona caught fire and four people were killed in the blaze.
Like other southern European countries, Spain has for more than a decade seen a steady influx of migrants who risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean or Atlantic in small boats.
While many developed countries have taken a hard-line position against migration, Spain's left-wing government has said that legal migration has helped its economy grow.
