HUNDREDS of people on the Costa del Sol have been made homeless after Guardia Civil and riot police evicted them on Tuesday morning.
Over 300 have been evicted in total, from a complex on Calle Sarmiento in Manilva, with over half of the homeless children (180).
The local mayor, meanwhile, refused to come out to speak to protesters after they marched on the town hall.
The families are currently offered shelter in the nearby sports hall, but left without basic essentials which are located in their homes.Â
The sports hall offers virtually no facilities for the evicted families apart from showers and a roof over their heads, with just one neighbour bringing a mattress for the hundreds of occupants.
The residents told The Olive Press they feel abandoned by the local town hall with unanswered questions and false promises.
“The mayor promised to take care of the situation and find hotels for families with children, but of course this didn’t happen,” said one witness who didn’t want to be named.
“He also said he would show up, but apparently he had a lot of meetings today that were more important.”
Another witness told The Olive Press: “This morning around 70 or 80
police officers came and surrounded the building like it was a crime scene.
“There were a lot of irregularities in the way the eviction was done, one of which was that social services were not provided to take care of the young and old people that were in the building.
“There was actually an older wheelchair-bound woman who suffered a stroke when they kicked everyone out.
“She was left inside by herself, and we had to fight for them to let someone go back to try and get her.
“They closed off several streets surrounding the building so that nobody could see what was happening. They knew what they did was wrong.”
The residents have instead taken matters into their own hands and called the Red Cross, hoping to receive some food and other necessities.Â
Witnesses told The Olive Press that security companies has been on standby to enter the homes as soon as they were emptied in order to install cameras and alarms, while at the same time the entrances to the building were being closed off.Â
Security and police declined to answer our questions about the eviction.
After the eviction, the residents marched to the Manilva Town Hall to demand immediate accommodation.
The incident follows after months of uncertainties about the future of this building.
Families originally moved into the building without electricity and water, paying €50 a month in exchange for doing the rehabilitation work themselves.
Years later, in 2023, the building was sold to a reported Irish ‘vulture fund’ for a bargain price averaging €14,000 each.Â
The new owners subsequently went to court to demand the eviction of all residents, which was approved and carried out today.
The Olive Press has contacted the town hall for comment.
The eviction had originally been scheduled for early February but was postponed because emergency services were deployed to deal with severe winter storms.
The crisis has sparked a fierce political backlash, with left-wing politicians pointing the finger directly at the regional government.
Representatives from Podemos, Izquierda Unida and Adelante Andalucia have heavily criticised the local council and Junta president Juanma Moreno for failing to intervene.
They accused the authorities of ‘putting out the red carpet’ for speculative investors while abandoning working-class families to the streets.
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