28/03/2024
Article sent by a collaborator
According to local press media ( La Tribuna de Albacete y Albacete digital ) and other digital media ( What we are ), neighbors of the La Milagrosa neighborhood - more popularly known as “the 600” - they have organized to denounce the illegal demolition on April 2 of the building in which they live. We reproduce the press release that has been sent to the media and we have found in full here :
“ The City Council wants to evict illegally and against Human Rights, demolishing buildings with people and families inside
At the beginning of February, the Albacete City Council warned many of us that they were going to expel us from our homes, specifically the neighbors of the streets of Chinchilla and Jorge Juan. The notice was made suddenly and without indicating a date and time for the launch, as it should indicate as legally. Now, a week in advance, they warn with a street poster (without individual notification) that on April 2 begins the demolition of our buildings.
The 600 is a neighborhood born of poverty, everyone in Albacete is aware of the bad reputation of this area. It is a neighborhood turned into Guetto for the poorest of society forcedly because of the bad policies of the different governments of the City Council, Diputación and Autonomous Community. They all have direct and indirect responsibility.
Just as it was born out of poverty, it is poverty that sustains its existence and has allowed that, despite the appalling sanitation conditions and the state of several of its buildings, the residents continue to live here. We ask the residents of the rest of Albacete not to be deceived by a bad image that does not correspond to reality. The houses in the neighbourhood are a lifeline for many families who cannot afford to rent and for hard-working immigrants who would otherwise be living on the streets. Many of us have been working here all our lives, or we have put our physical integrity at risk to come to Spain by the world's deadliest routes from Africa.
This is a reality that is not expressed too much, while it lies blatantly over the neighborhood: that 600 is a neighborhood of thugs, drug traffickers and criminals, that the neighbors there “we have no solution”, etc. They convert the neighborhood into Guetto forcedly for the poorest, and above, then criminalize the situation blaming ... to whom we live in the neighborhood! Drug trafficking does not come from nothing. It is a painful consequence that is born of poverty sustained by the policies of the City Council, Diputación and Autonomous Community.
Another reality that Albacete are also aware is that a solution has been promised for years to the 600 problem, and we are suffering that attempted solution now. It turns out that the plan consisted of throwing us all into the street without any consideration. The plan, simply, is an urban remodeling to, in perspective, gentrify and expel its current neighbors through illegal evictions and systematic violation of human rights.
A sign placed by the City Council expressed the following, in bold and underlined as transcribed here:
"The demolition works of the complete building will begin shortly, it is necessary for their safety that for this date the building has evicted, leaving under their responsibility the personal and material damage that may suffer in case of not doing so"
We believe that this positioning is really intolerable, and does not seek to protect us as it says but to sow terror among the neighbors so that they voluntarily leave their homes (of course, without really having a place where to go) under the threat of suffering "personal damage." There is no housing alternative that is worth. The City Council says: Go and die of cold on the street, or stay and die buried. Many here we have already gone through maximum risks just by having a house to sleep. It is evident that this notice will not be able to evict or to a single person. Many neighbors of other blocks, mostly with family, see with concern how the situation develops, thinking that the following will be.
-We need the responsibility that the City Council wants to pour over us regarding the hygiene and ruin of buildings.
-We point out to the City Council, Diputación and Autónoma community as responsible for an unfortunate housing and habitability situation for 50 years, and forced poverty for 50 years.
-We point out to those responsible that the temporary immigrants, motor and heart of the agricultural regime in the region are treated as spoils. No one should work so much and still not to be able to afford.
-We solve the solidarity of the residents of Albacete, and ask that they not be fooled by a false image. We are not criminals, we are working families.
-We explain an immediate and realistic solution of housing, and in particular, the paralysis of any illegal eviction and against human rights.
If we legitimize people from the place where they live, without harming anyone and as the only way of survival of forced poverty they live, we will be legitimizing attacks against all workers and humble people in the city.
Signed
:
Neighbors of
las 600
, united in solidarity.
Albacete, March 2024 «
