Spanish Housing Discrimination Case Highlights Ongoing Racism Against Moroccans

Saad Belhaj, 20 years old, decided to leave his parents with whom he was living in another city to get closer to his workplace. He was looking for an apartment in Almeria, Andalusia, to get to the sports store where he is employed more quickly. After several searches, he finally found a room in a shared apartment with three roommates, which met his needs and his budget. But after signing the rental contract and taking the keys to the room, one of the roommates, a girl, called him to tell him that he could not live with her because her father did not want her to live with "Arabs or gypsies".

"I was shocked, frozen. I’ve never experienced anything like this. I didn’t know how to react and I asked him for a chance, to get to know me. Now I think about it and I tell myself that I don’t have to ask anyone for a chance because I’m proud of my origins," said the young man to La Nacion, stressing that he had never been a victim of racism because of his origins before. With tears in her eyes, the girl assured him that she had tried to convince her parents that he "is a nice boy, who dresses well and has a good job," but her father would not understand anything. "Just because I’m Moroccan, can’t I have a good job and dress well? I was hallucinating," added Saad.

Born in Morocco, Saad arrived in the Andalusian city with his parents when he was only three months old. "I’ve spent my whole life here. I love this country and I’m happy here. Moroccans are not thieves or murderers. I still can’t believe this is happening today," laments the young man whose misadventure was recounted by his work colleague, Elena, on Twitter, denouncing "pure and simple racism". The tweet, which went viral, received more than 28,000 likes in two weeks. Several Internet users acknowledged in their comments that they had also been victims of racism in Almeria while looking for housing.

"I hope racism will end one day," wrote one of them. "A few weeks ago, I denounced an ad that was only looking for European tenants, but there is total impunity in the housing sector," denounced another. According to the 2018 annual report of the Spanish NGO SOS Racismo, which accompanies and assists victims of racial discrimination or xenophobia by providing them with legal advice, 359 complaints of racial violence were recorded in nine provinces during the reference year.

The exchange between Saad and his roommate: