Badalona, Spain — Spanish police on Wednesday evicted almost 200 people from a huge informal settlement near Barcelona that symbolised the country’s housing crisis and difficulties for immigrants, sparking uproar from NGOs. Acting under a court order, dozens of officers fanned out around the abandoned B9 secondary school in Badalona, a town of 230,000 people in the north of Barcelona’s greater metropolitan area. The expulsion took place peacefully despite a few moments of tension, with the mostly migrant residents carrying away their belongings in suitcases or trolleys. Police said they identified 181 people during the operation. The central government’s representation in the northeastern Catalonia region said 15 were detained for migration irregularities. Around 400 people once inhabited the former school, transformed into an assortment of flimsy shacks filled with broken furniture, but some had already fled in advance of the police operation. Badalona’s right-wing mayor, who is outspoken in his criticism of illegal immigration and had requested the eviction, celebrated the news on X. “I said we would kick out the 400 illegal squatters who made life impossible for residents, and we’ve done it,” wrote Xavier Garcia Albiol, of the main conservative Popular Party. “Badalona is not a shelter for illegality or for anti-social behaviour.” NGOs voiced concern over expelling residents in the middle of winter and a housing crisis that has made properties unaffordable for many Spaniards, with migrants especially vulnerable. A group of Badalona organisations said in a statement that the problem was simply being “displaced” and that the operation “offers no long-term social or residential alternative”. Jessica Albiach, a lawmaker with far-left party Comuns, spoke of “a disgrace” and a “violation of human rights” in the regional parliament. Housing is the number one concern for Spanish citizens, according to the last Eurobarometer survey. The rental price per square metre has practically doubled in the last 10 years, according to online real estate portal Idealista, far outstripping salaries.
