POLICE in Catalunya forcibly evicted around 200 migrant squatters from an abandoned school building on Wednesday.
The clear out took five hours from the site in Badalona.
The local council said that the likelihood of an impending police operation led to around 150 people leaving in the days before.
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A judge on December 4 had given Badalona council permission to ‘retake’ the building after it successfully argued that the squat was a public safety hazard
A total of 181 people were identified on Wednesday and 15 were arrested by the Policia Nacional for breaking the Immigration Law.
While the eviction was completed without violence, there were moments of tension when occupiers had to walk past armed police officers.
On leaving the school, people loaded their belongings onto carts, some used as trailers led by bicycles, to haul them away.
Many of the squatters lived from selling scrap metal collected from the streets.
Others had residency and work permits but were forced to live in the old school.
Many sub-Saharan migrants, mostly from Senegal and Gambia, had moved into the empty building since it was left abandoned in 2023.
The judicial order obliged the Badalona council to provide the evicted people with access to social services, but it did not order local authorities to find housing for all the squatters.
Badalona will offer temporary housing to some 30 people, while another 60 are being looked after by Catalunya social services.
Lawyer Marta Llonch, who represents the squatters, said that many people would surely end up without shelter in the cold weather.
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