Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)
THE Olive Press has discovered hundreds of legal workers living in makeshift tent-style homes in scrubland in Ibiza.
Our investigation also found, at least the same number, parked up living in vehicles just one kilometer from the main resort Ibiza Town.
To make matters worse the authorities have recently started clearing one camp near the supermarket Mercadona and are threatening to clamp down on others.
At one rapidly expanding shanty town near the ITV (MOT) testing centre – as shown on Sky News last week – there are hundreds camped together.
It is the same situation close to the famous party resort San Antonio.
This week the Olive Press found a number of other smaller camps near Playa D’en Bossa, just a ten minute walk from Ibiza’s tourist Mecca of Dalt Vila.
Living in the shadow of under-construction luxury apartments costing upwards of half a million euros, they showed us how they cooked on outdoor stoves and washed with water bottles.
And these people are not Gypsies, travellers or illegal immigrants: They are legal European workers who have lucrative six-month work contracts for the summer season.
We spoke to three employees – with well paid full time contacts – having to live in these dehumanizing conditions.
They all blame the local and national government for years of under investment in public or affordable housing.
One, a Romanian called Julio, 33, is in his second year working at a parking company at Ibiza Airport.
He sleeps on a makeshift bed made out of a trampoline base under a tree on scrubland.
When we spoke to him his life was spread out in bags around him, the detritus of homeless living all too apparent.
A fellow worker slept in a bizarre car seat bed next to him.
Julio showed me his uniform and liveried cap (we are not naming the firm to protect him) before explaining: “It’s a decent well paid job and I like the work but it’s impossible to find somewhere to live.
Click here to read more Video News from The Olive Press.
