Moroccan Couple Dies in Makeshift Home Near Barcelona, Leaving Toddler Orphaned

The death of the couple has caused outrage among residents and relatives who denounce the fact that the victims did not receive any help from the authorities. Munir and Jessica had been living for a little over two years in a small cabin located in a suburb near the Besòs river. They have a two-and-a-half-year-old son who did not live with them due to their extreme precariousness. On Sunday, they were moving into a larger cabin and wanted to warm it up with a makeshift fireplace when they died of asphyxiation, reports El Diario.

Munir and Jessica arrived on site after being evicted from their apartment in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, due to lack of means. Of Moroccan origin, Munir was the youngest of a family of ten children and had been living in Spain for more than 25 years. He worked as a scrap metal dealer before his death. Jessica, of Spanish nationality, worked in a clothing store in Santa Coloma.

To read: Moroccan Man Dies Trapped in Charity Clothing Bin in Malaga

"Do two people have to die for us to realize their extreme poverty situation?" indignantly exclaims Leila Bakhat, Munir’s sister, on the phone. Like her brother Rachid, who arrived on the scene, she accuses the municipal and national authorities of having done nothing to get her brother and his wife, as well as the rest of the inhabitants of this shantytown, out of this situation of exclusion. "What happened to them could have happened to any family in this suburb," adds Leila, also blaming the media for not having played their role and alerted to the misery of these people.

The area is occupied by homeless people whose exact number is not known by the municipal authorities. As confirmed on Monday by the mayor of Montcada i Reixac, Laura Campos, these people are not registered in the municipal register and have not been in contact with the social services. The problem of shantytowns is endemic in certain large Spanish cities. According to the latest report from the Generalitat in 2016, 48,000 people lived in unsanitary housing in Catalonia, including more than 5,000 homeless and 34,000 others in dangerous or inadequate housing.