Hundreds of predominantly undocumented migrants were evicted from an occupied, abandoned school building here on Thursday in a large-scale police operation. The squat, located in this city bordering Barcelona, had been inhabited since 2023 after the building was left vacant.
The eviction proceeded under a judicial order that deemed the structure unsafe. Many of the occupants departed voluntarily in the early morning hours ahead of the arrival of police officers in riot gear, seeking alternative shelter as temperatures drop.
The operation was carried out on the orders of Badalona’s conservative Mayor, Xavier García Albiol, whose stricter stance on immigration contrasts with the policies of Spain’s national leftist government. The eviction highlights the ongoing tension between local and national approaches to migration and housing.
Amid the clearing, a displaced occupant voiced the community’s distress to reporters. “All we want to ask is to be allowed to stay here until after Christmas or the cold weather passes,” they said. “But they don’t want to listen to that either. I don’t know what kind of heart they have. It seems heartless to evict 400 people in the middle of winter. This person must have a very hard heart to do that.”
Authorities have not detailed where the evicted individuals will be relocated. The operation concludes the prolonged occupation but opens questions regarding winter shelter for the city’s vulnerable migrant population.