28 March 2012
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Spain
Police raid
migrant occupation
An occupation by migrants that started
on 10 June 2002, in advance of the EU Summit in Seville on 21-22
June, in the Andalusian city's Pablo de Olavide university was
ended by a police raid on 8 August. As a result over 270 people
were detained and taken to cells in the Seville police headquarters
to await judicial decisions on their cases. Over 430 migrants,
predominantly Algerians, took part in the action which included
a brief hunger strike over their loss of employment in the strawberry
harvest in Huelva, in south-west Andalucia.
The migrants demanded their regularisation and protested against
the actions of the Andalusian regional government, that authorised
employers to employ 6,700 contract workers in their countries
of origin (mainly Poland, and also Romania, countries with which
Spain has concluded bilateral agreement on seasonal workers)
to effectively replace thousands of Maghreb country nationals
who usually carried out the work, many of whom lived locally.
This is likely to result in many North Africans from the Huelva
region, a lot of whom possessed employment contracts, losing
their livelihood and becoming "illegals" under the
Aznar government's restrictive immigration legislation, due to
their loss of employment.
Police in riot gear, some on horseback, carried out the eviction
at 6.15 am on 8 August, with searchlights from a helicopter lighting
the area, after being asked to intervene by the university authorities.
University head Rosario Valpuesta justified demanding the eviction
by claiming that new protestors were joining the occupation,
that renovation work needed to be carried out on the premises
that were occupied, and that there was mounting friction between
the migrants and university workers.
The official figure for the number of people detained was 275,
and El Pais reports that judges in Dos Hermanas authorised
the detention of 210 of these in immigrant detention centres
in Madrid, Malaga, Murcia and Ceuta (which is not officially
an immigrant detention centre, and in which 130 of those involved
will be detained) pending expulsion. The remaining 65 were freed
after their cases had not been dealt with within the three-day
limit during which they could legally be detained, and reportedly
included around 30 who may succeed in obtaining residence permits,
and 12 who were given 15 days to leave Spain after being told
that their regularisation applications submitted prior to the
occupation were rejected.
Around 200 of the migrants handed their papers in to the Andalusian
ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo), Jose Chamizo, in the hope of
obtaining residence papers. Many of these subsequently left the
occupation and some of these can reportedly expect to obtain
residence papers, whereas others refused to hand in their papers
and stayed on campus.
Rosario Valpuesta had previously refused to demand or authorise
police intervention, arguing that the university "is a space
that implies freedom of thought, ideas and opinion, all of which
is incompatible with an intervention, unless damage is caused
to goods, persons or ideas". A local support network (Red
de Apoyo) was established by concerned individuals who opened
a bank account to provide basic necessities, medical assistance,
legal counselling and solidarity to the migrants, with cooperation
from Caritas, Medicos del Mundo, doctors from the Montequinto
health centre, traders from the Seville market, Seville county
council, and the town halls of Carmona and Dos Hermanas (Seville).
Some university teachers also explicitly supported the occupants.
However, a month later, members of the support group were denied
access to the campus by university security staff, university
deputy head Juan Jimenez filed a formal complaint against them,
and Jose Chamizo accused the support group of "manipulating"
the migrants. The university and ombudsman blamed the support
group for the migrants' refusal to give the ombudsman their documents,
and for the length of the occupation.
The Red de Apoyo criticised "the intimidatory
and authoritarian behaviour" of the university security
service, and accused the media of "publicly attacking"
them using "falsehood", stressing that the decisions
taken by the migrants were taken independently. In a communique,
the migrant workers backed the support group, contradicting some
of the accusations, such as the allegation that their documents
had been confiscated:
"Contrary to what has appeared in some media outlets,
no one is holding our passports ... we unanimously decided to
hide our personal documents as a defence against a possible police
intervention. Our only form of defence is our anonymity, and
as such we exercise it."
El Pais 11.6,
12.6, 23.6, 1.7, 20.7, 8-12.8.02; il manifesto 9.8.02; Sere yo
el instigador del encierro en la Olavide? Carta abierta al senor
delegado del gobierno en Andalucia, Juan F. Ojeda Rivera; Red
de Apoyo communiques 11.7.02, 16.7.02; Communique of the
migrant workers occupying the Pablo de Olavide university. Further
information available from: http://www.nodo50.org/elencierro
filed 14.8.02
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