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Lock-in by undocumented migrants

01 May 2004

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On 5 June 2004, 2,000 migrants locked themselves in two churches in Barcelona, calling for the regularisation of their situation, and demanding "papers for all". The lock-in took place following a demonstration in the city centre by 5,000 people. The police intervened on the morning of 6 June, violently evicting the migrants from the cathedral and arresting around 15 of them, who were held in the Centro de Internamiento de La Verneda (La Verneda detention centre). Expulsion proceedings have been started.

A similar mobilisation took place in January 2001, when around 1,000 migrants staged a lock-in at the church of Santa María del Pi, in Barcelona. In the same period, similar lock-ins also took place in other Spanish towns. The Partido Popular (PP) eventually approved an extraordinary regularisation process which resulted, in Barcelona alone, in 14,000 migrants obtaining documents, including almost all of the participants in the lock-in.

On 3 and 4 July 2004, around 100 migrants staged a 24-hour fast, at the end of which they decided to postpone any further actions until September.

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