Badalona B9 evictees are enduring freezing rain and dire conditions under a motorway bridge, with one man stating there is “not so much misery in Africa.”
Ousseynou Touré is sick with the flu and has no hot food.
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His tent is completely soaked. “With this cold, I won’t last much longer,” he says. He, like others, was not rehoused by the Red Cross and Social Rights department’s emergency plan.
Badalona B9 evictees Lack Clear Information and Hope Carles Sagués from the local group Badalona Acull says rehousing has been slow. He criticises the Generalitat’s rushed and improvised plan, which left many confused about their options. “They didn’t ask us anything,” says one man known as El Hammed.
El Hammed came to Catalonia to work and support his family. “We want to contribute to society, to work, to pay taxes, and they don’t let us,” he argues. He adds that if he had known he would end up sleeping under a bridge, he would never have come.
Those under the bridge have nowhere to go. They listen to music, keep each other company, and help one another. Some just sit in silence. Touré stresses that each person there is responsible for a family back home. “I have a wife and three children.
Volunteers work constantly to provide food, drink, and clothing. Matar, a Senegalese man who lived in B9 but now shares a flat in Santa Coloma, comes daily to help. He is exhausted from pleading for a solution. “I have no voice left, I’ve gone hoarse from asking for so long,” he says.
Health Crisis Looms for Badalona’s Homeless Badalona Acull warns that the health of those under the C-31 bridge is at serious risk. One man, known as Coffee, has a broken foot and can barely move.
Sagués is calling on the government to restart the rehousing scheme after the holidays. However, sources from Social Rights have told the Ara newspaper they rule out more large-scale operations.
Meanwhile, El Hammed insists they need a real alternative to living exposed to the elements. “This is the life I’m living.
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