Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)BULLDOZERS have knocked down a gypsy shantytown in southern Spain and given its residents one way tickets back to Romania.
A total of 15 people were given bus tickets back to Romania by Motril town hall on the Costa Del Sol.
The tickets cost a total of 1,200 euros.
Authorities allegedly threatened to put children into care if the shantytown occupants refused to go.
“Cars with loudspeakers were cruising the streets, demanding that they go and threatening to take away the children of those who didn’t,” said Natalia Garcia of the Human Rights Association of Andalucia (APHD).
A family of three, however, is refusing to leave their shacks in the Los Amaras area of the town as they all have jobs in the area.
The town hall, which is controlled by the conservative PP party, maintains the entire demolition process was strictly legal.
“The shacks were on the municipal land and were in lamentable condition,” said the council’s spokesperson.
“The residents told us they didn’t have the means to go leave,” he added. “We reached an agreement and bought tickets for them to help them go to their country of origin.”
The authorities brought in the bulldozers on Wednesday after deciding to take action against the shantytown in late October.
Local residents have been complaining for months about the noise and violent attitude of the squatters, who also included Spanish and Morrocan nationals.
The Romanian consulate in Seville played down the demolition, referring to it as an ‘exceptional case’.
Spanish NGOs said in a joint statement: “the demolition violated human rights and continued the unacceptable expulsion of Roma gypsies began by France, Great Britain and Germany.”
Oh lord a council with some courage, can we have them instead of the dave and wishy washy show please.
Councilors with the will to act for the MAJORITY at last
Can someone highlight where, in Great Britain, we are expelling Romany Gypsies from? I live in Essex, 5 miles from the largest ‘Traveller Site’ in Europe – An odd term given it’s been there longer than I’ve been in Essex!
I wish the UK treated non Brits in the same way that Spain treats non Spaniards
I wish That all of the non-Indigenous inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere could be sent back to wherever it is that their ancestors came from. That includes the descendants of Brits and Spaniards, and good riddance to the lot and the problems they’ve brought with them – especially greed and the physical and spiritual pollution wreaked upon people who never asked for it and didn’t deserve it.
I wonder where Allison’s ancestors came from? Somewhere ignorant anyway.
Allison,
strange statement you make, could you please be specific.
Brits – an abreviation for the Britonic Celts – the second wave of Celts to arrive in this continent, which includes the Gauls who spoke a derivation of Britonic – that was 4000 years ago.
You should know that there is no such thing as a Spanish race, only a Spanish nation. Presumably you are then referring to Arabs/Jews/Goths/Visigoths/Swabians and not least the Euskadi who have been here for around 40,000 years.
If any sense can be made of your rant – you must then be Euskadi.
The hands off approach to Gypsies is due to guilt over the German/Austrian extermination of over half their number. Most of those going into the Social Security offices down the avenue from us were Gypsies who were so obese no one would ever give them a job.
I don’t care what race/colour or religion you are, if you deliberately make yourself unemployable – no handouts – enforced slimming?