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. Nearly 200 people, according to figures from the Palma City Council (Cort), will have to leave their homes in a few days, and the City Council has offered them "no 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 about five months. He doesn't have legal papers and, therefore, cannot rely "in any way" on the Social Services portfolio of the Palma City Council, as the First Deputy Mayor of Palma, Javier Bonet, emphasized this Tuesday. The Palma City Council maintains that approximately 70% of the population of the former prison 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 Consell de Mallorca that "the vast majority of homeless people" They do not want IMAS services. "Because they're not charities." In response to 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 tug-of-war 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 points out, have been the Military Emergency Unit (UME) and the Red Cross. Brainer shows a health card that the Red Cross helped him obtain. The organization arrived with a van that was open near the access control point, where they provided food and assistance to those in need.

"Maximum concern"

For his part, the first deputy mayor and councillor for Tourism, Culture, Sports and Municipal Coordination, Javier Bonet, explained that there is "maximum concern" in Cort about the fires which have occurred in recent days at the old prison. "They appear to be arson. We are concerned that the people living there could be burned to death," he stressed. He also confirmed that the City Council has decided to evacuate the prison due to the fires.

He also stated that someone might be left homeless after the evacuation "is something that can happen," although he indicated that the City Council "is working with all levels of government to take joint action and find temporary places where these people can sleep." He noted that the City Council will contact "everyone who has housing options" because, in his opinion, the situation at the old prison "is a national problem and joint solutions are needed."

Albiol Method

The spokesperson for Podemos Palma, Lucía Muñoz, has denounced that the mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, "is employing the Albiol method (referring to the mayor of Badalona), which consists of a criminal housing policy and leaving people on the street who are already living in conditions no one would want." She also referred to the solutions offered by the Palma City Council to the residents of the former prison and denounced that they offer "none." "That's what the people who live here say," she explained. She also pointed out that the City Council, which often refers to the large percentage of undocumented immigrants living in the old prison, "has also failed to provide information about the regularization of migrants announced by the Spanish government." Therefore, she denounced that the City Council "is not providing the information they need to access social services." Furthermore, she criticized the City Council's offer of temporary housing for the residents of the old prison. "Temporary accommodation is not the solution they need." "What they need is decent housing," he said.

Serious lack of foresight

Doctors of the World in the Balearic Islands also criticized the "imminent" eviction from the former Palma prison, stating that the Palma City Council (Cort) had committed a "serious lack of foresight and planning." Along the same lines, they reproached the fact that "the number of first-reception places has not been increased proportionally, nor have sufficient alternative residential resources been made available to absorb the demand that the eviction will generate." Therefore, they lamented that "250 people will be directly condemned to a reality marked by insecurity, the disruption of therapeutic and social processes, accelerated deterioration of health, and greater exposure to situations of violence, exclusion, and stigmatization." The organization has demanded that Cort "assume its institutional responsibility and act urgently, providing sufficient and adequate dignified housing alternatives before evicting" anyone.