Date Published: 07/06/2021
ARCHIVED - Man arrested for charging illegal immigrants to live in Almeria slum encampments
ARCHIVED ARTICLE The man was himself a Moroccan, but unashamedly exploited his fellow countrymen who were in a vulnerable position
There are many facets to the complex situations created by illegal immigration, one of which is that far from Spain being the land of promise and work that many irregular migrants believe it to be, the reality for thousands who arrive in Spain without the right to work is life living in conditions in which most of us would be ashamed to keep a dog.
The shanty encampments built of waste plastic, pallets, cardboard and discarded rubbish from the agricultural sector in which some of these illegal migrants find work is used to build flimsy, makeshift encampments, furnished with discarded furniture retrieved from rubbish bins and skips, with no electricity, running water and even the most basic of hygiene facilities.
In some cases the ramshackle structures are built around a house which is connected to the electricity and the “lucky” migrants to have some sort of a roof over their heads live in cramped and basic conditions, sometimes dozens to a house and sharing a single bathroom and tiny kitchen, and even taking turns to sleep on mattresses on the floor.
That this is even allowed to happen at all is testament to the problems many of the authorities feel when faced with the sheer volume of illegal migrants who cross the sea from Africa, often in flimsy boats with no lifejackets on board, having paid an average of over 2,000 euros a head to come to Spain in search of a better life.
Videos of police dismantling these camps in Calais as desperate migrants attempt to stow away on lorries to get across to the UK are frequently shown in the United Kingdom, but few realise these slum encampments also exist all along the Spanish coast and on the outskirts of many Spanish cities.
Those living in them are routinely exploited, and placed in an almost impossible position, unable to afford to move on with their lives due to their illegal status and unable to work legally in Spain, so therefore always vulnerable to exploitation and abuse and yet unable to go back to where they came from.
In this case the National Police in the municipality of El Ejido (Almería) have arrested a Moroccan national, accused of exploiting people in an irregular situation in Spain to whom he rented accommodation in one of the slum settlements, allegedly cutting off the electricity and destroying their belongings if they did not pay him “rent”.
The Kenitra operation began during the first days of 2021 after investigators from the El El Ejido Police Station detected an increase in the population in the settlement located in the Paraje de la Cumbre-Paraje Las Chozas, “home” to a number of Moroccan men between 20 and 35 years old, living in appalling hygiene conditions.
Following an investigation, the National Police determined that a Moroccan national was using the criminal networks which first brought illegal migrants to Spain and was charging 400 euros to each irregular migrant to take them in his car to the illegally built shanty town. Each month his “tenants” had to pay 60 euros per person for rental.
Delays in payments were followed by threats, destruction of their meagre possessions or cutting off the electricity supply, which was itself drawing current illegally.
Recently, and following the mass entry into Ceuta a couple of weeks ago, these shanty towns have been the subject of arson attacks in various locations within the Andalucía region; two have deliberately torched in Huelva province where many migrants work in the fruit picking sector on a seasonal basis and another in Nijar, Almeria province, for which the suspected perpetrator has been arrested.
Yet the migrants continue to come on an almost daily basis, crossing from Morocco, Sub-Sahara and Algeria in search of a better life.
Image: Policia Nacional