Moroccan Migrants Left Homeless as Almeria Shantytown Cleared After Fires

Saïd, 27, arrived in 2018 in Barbate from Larache, Morocco, in an inflatable boat, in search of a better life. An only child, he was a student and had a relatively stable life. Since his arrival in Spain, where he manages to send them a little money, he has not returned to Morocco. Without papers, his life in Spain is not as beautiful as he had hoped. "I’m worse off here than in Morocco," he confides to El Correo.

Dreaming of being a hairdresser, he has already traveled through several Spanish cities as a seasonal worker, from Granada to Almeria, passing through Huelva, Jaén, Córdoba and Barcelona. Homeless, he found himself in Walili, the shantytown of Níjar (Almería) destroyed last Monday. The inhabitants of this insanitary neighborhood, estimated at 31,816, including more than 7,000 migrants of Moroccan origin for the most part, earn between 4 and 6 euros per hour as seasonal workers. "If you don’t die at sea, you’ll die here," says Saïd, who mentions the danger of living in the Nijar shantytown.

Walili had shacks, a mosque, a store and a brothel. The shantytown was razed this week, forcing Saïd to find himself on the street. "Life was ’a bit bad’ there, but at least we had a place to leave our things. No one was going to steal from you. We were like a family," laments Saïd, who has to work hard and save money for three years to get a job contract and papers. The young man confesses to having lost everything in the fire of his hut taken at 400 euros, a fire that occurred while he was participating in the strawberry campaign in Huelva last year.

According to the local police of Níjar, some 250 people were evicted due to the destruction of the shantytown. There would be more than 500 to find themselves on the street, according to certain NGOs. The local authorities claim that 80 migrants have been taken care of, but there would only be 20 or 30 according to Saïd. The rest would be in the El Hoyo and La Pared shantytowns. The inhabitants of the latter shantytown, larger than Walili, fear that their area will be the next to be razed.