Residents of Palma's old prison: "The only solution Cort offers us is the street"

PalmThe eviction of the old prison of Palma It has already begun, as evidenced by a large tent set up by the Palma Local Police at the back entrance of the prison. Although nearly 200 people, according to figures from the Palma City Council (Cort), will have to leave their homes in a few days, the City Council has not offered them any housing solutions, according to everyone interviewed by ARA Baleares. "The only option they've given us is the street," laments a young man who prefers to remain anonymous.

Like him, hundreds of people living in the former prison wonder what will happen to their lives when they leave. "What will we do? Die in the street? We're human beings, not animals," asks Brainer, who has been living there for approximately five months. He doesn't have legal papers and therefore can't cling to his home "in any way," as the First Deputy Mayor of Palma, Javier Bonet, emphasized on Tuesday regarding the social services department of the Palma City Council. The Palma City Council maintains that approximately 70% of the former prison's population are "undocumented immigrants." For this reason, they believe that the Spanish government delegation should be responsible for these people. "If they have tents for immigrants, why not for these people?" Bonet asked.

Palma City Council often refers to the number of undocumented people in the old prison, and, in addition, the president of the Mallorcan Institute of Social Affairs (IMAS), Guillermo Sánchez, stated in the last plenary session of the Council of Mallorca that "the vast majority of homeless people" They do not want IMAS services. "Because they're not charities." Faced with this statement, a man who has lived in the old prison for nine years says he would accept any solution necessary to avoid living on the street. "But, for now, they haven't given me anything. I'll take a shopping cart, put my things in it, and wander around the streets," he says.

The political back-and-forth has left the residents of the prison feeling "like bouncing balls," says Brainer. "They send us from one place to another. But nobody proposes any solutions or gives us any help," he insists. The "only" organizations that have helped them, he says, have been the Mobile Emergency Units (UME) and the Red Cross. Brainer shows a health card that the Red Cross helped him obtain. "They're so lucky," says a young Moroccan man referring to the organization, which arrived with a van they had open near the access control point, where they were providing food and assistance to those in need.