Ripoll’s Moroccan Youth Still Face Stigma Years After 2017 Barcelona Attack

Omar, born in Ripoll to Moroccan parents, was 9 years old on the day of the terrorist attacks in Las Ramblas and Cambrils, perpetrated by six radicalized young people from Catalonia by the imam Abdelbaki Es Satty of the local mosque. Now 15 years old, this Catalan teenager continues to bear the scars of these massacres. Regularly the victim of racist insults and treated as a "terrorist", Omar has become a withdrawn young man who confides very little to his friends.

Like him, many young people of Arab origin are experiencing the same situation in Ripoll. This is the case of Moussa, 25, a student and waiter. "It’s only in Ripoll that as a Moroccan, you feel like a terrorist. We deal with it," he confides to El Periódico de España. Arrived in Sant Joan de les Abadeses at the age of four, the young man says he was close to the young people who committed these attacks and regrets having lost friends after these massacres. "After the attacks, many moved away from me," he laments.

The young man claims to be a victim of discrimination. "The Mossos [Catalan police] stop you when you’re with Catalans, or when you’re looking to rent an apartment, they say no after looking at your last name," says Moussa, who confesses that he had a Catalan girlfriend, but was afraid to introduce her to his parents. "That’s living between two worlds. You’ll always feel different. You learn to live with the racist gaze at school and at the same time, there are things you can’t say or do at home," he explains, ultimately considering himself a "citizen of the world".

Hamza, 27, who arrived in Ripoll at the age of seven and works in a textile factory, was also marked by these attacks. "Before, people were nice to us... but since the attack everything has changed. They look at you differently, they don’t want to rent you an apartment, they find excuses..." he points out. Racism is still very present in Ripoll and does not only target Moroccans. "There is a lot of racism here, I’ve been here for three years and I don’t have a friend. They make you feel inferior..." denounces Laura Gómez, a Colombian.