Spain has accumulated almost 10,000 ‘squats’ in the last year and a half, of which a third are inhabited

Spain is accumulating 9,949 complaints about ‘occupation’ of homes in the last year and a halfAccording to the latest data sent by the Department of the Interior to Congress, of these, 3,646 (36.64%) were residential and 5,803 (58.23%) were located.

These are the numbers the department headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska has sent to a group of Vox lawmakers interested in the evolution of this phenomenon.

The Ministry takes the opportunity to explain to them what the generic term is. “real estate occupation” It includes different types of crimes of the Criminal Code. On the one hand, trespassing (article 202), some situations where the Security Forces act by “immediately and definitively evacuating homes” as long as they have permission from the resident and the resident has filed a complaint. . “.

On the other hand, the examination is related to the usurpation of immovables, whether by violence or not, by article 245. Here, he adds, the agents’ behavior is subject to a warrant of release and the owner’s explicit intent to reclaim the property, unless they were able to intervene “with violence or intimidation” at the time the crime was committed. In this case, they can evacuate immediately.

523 COMPLAINTS PER DAY

Following these statements, the Government emphasizes that “the ‘occupation’ complaints, regardless of trespassing and extortion, have fallen by 7 to 10% so far in 2022”.

The response, available to Europa Press, contains a data table of complaints by province, which differs according to whether or not they are occupied. Specifically, a total of 9,949 complaints were registered between 2021 and July 2022, on average 523 complaints per day.

Community of Madrid is at the forefront of complaints both residential and vacant houses. Thus, 972 residential homes and 805 uninhabited houses were registered during this period, ie 1,777 in total, which is more than three times the number registered in Barcelona and the sixth with the most complaints. provinces

There, the total number of complaints was 524, and unlike Madrid, those related to uninhabited houses (305) were more than they (219).

SECOND MARRIED COAST REGIONS

The second province with the most housing ‘occupants’ is Valenciawith 979 (633 uninhabited and 346 inhabited), followed by Malaga, another coastal area with a large number of second homes. In this Andalusian state, 955 complaints have accumulated (805 about uninhabited houses and 155 about residential). Seville is the fourth country with the most complaints about squatting, with a total of 863, mostly empty (667), compared to 196 inhabited. Fifth is Murcia (614 ‘squats’, 449 dwellings and 165 dwellings) and the sixth is Barcelona with the data mentioned above.

In seventh place is another coastal province, such as Alicante, with a global population of 430, where once again the number of vacant slums (252) is more than the number of inhabitants (430). In the Balearic Islands, 391 complaints were registered (203 uninhabited and 188 inhabited).

Home Affairs points to the overlap of several factors as the reasons for the increase in such crimes, two of which stand out clearly: “high” number of empty properties (in fact, he points out that there are more extortion complaints) and people who lost their homes due to debts or unemployment due to the economic situation resulting from the overlap of the Covid crisis, the “logistics crisis” and the “logistics crisis”. international production” and production created by the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In any case, the ministry, regarding the data presented, stated that it should be taken into account that the field of housing use in the Crime Statistics System is not mandatory, adding, “Therefore, these figures may not coincide with the data available in Turkey. Total occupied residences”.