argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Fire in the dark
David Bou 2021eko abenduaren 24a

There were Shaky, Violet, Arsalan and Zhara. Couple and family composed of their children aged 3 and 4 months. They lived with four other people on a seafront in Tetuan Plaza in Barcelona. The space was the seat of a bank, until it closed and abandoned it. Another 13,000 premises appear to be empty, 17 per cent of the city ' s 80,000 commercial premises.

The four family members died on 30 November, in the early morning, unaware that it would be their last place of residence when the fire was swallowed. The research is still open, but the main hypothesis is that the fire was caused by a candle. The authorities had previously known the state of the building and appeared in Esquadra Mosso’s report, which lists dangerous occupations for people living in them.

"Thanks to a racist and exclusionary Aliens Act that leaves thousands of people without any protection,
they had neither residence
nor work permit"

This list began a year ago with the destruction of a building in Badalona and the death of three other people. In addition, dozens of other migrants who lived in a place where living conditions were minimal were left homeless. Similar situations have become a chronic problem in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona and the City Hall of the Catalan capital has recognized that there are 86 localized sites in which 384 people live, 53 minors, while in another 105 places there are 481 people, of which 156 are minors.

At best, several families receive support from the municipal social services: food, possibility of schooling of children and monitoring of health status. However, there is something that radically affects the situation of a large majority of them: they do not have a Foreign Identity Number. In practice, this means that they do not exist officially for the Spanish State, even if all the documents of the countries of origin are perfectly orderly.

That was the situation of this deceased family. His father was Pakistani and his mother was Romanian. Thanks to a racist and exclusionary Aliens Act that leaves thousands of people without any protection, they had neither residence nor work permit. With this situation not legalized, the couple could not register on the list of housing applications in Barcelona, nor ask for citizenship income or the minimum income. Therefore, scrap was collected for income and the occupation was the way to dispose of the roof.

Many of these weed dwellings lack light and fire is the only way to see or warm when cold comes. Christmas is coming and, when the lights flicker in the street to stimulate our excessive consumption, I cannot take those people who only have a candle of light out of my head. The deaths in Tetuan Square are not an accident, they are a further murder of companies of power of light, banks and buildings; in the war against the poor, year after year, they put an end to the lives that have no value to the capitalist system that wants to leave us in the dark.