Since last November 1, the 40 affected families – including more than 15 minors – who resided in the Santo Domingo de Guzmán Convent, located on Maestro Chapí Street in the town of Torrent, have had to deal with with all kinds of harassment from the hostel administrator because she wanted to evict them for not “being able to pay for the rooms.” “I am a mother with two children in my care. We have recently migrated to Spain. With DANA, they began to evict us. They are harassing and intimidating us into paying something we cannot. Our jobs are in Valencia and we cannot move. They took away our water and electricity and we were without food and they started to throw us out in the middle of the flood. Because we are migrant families without documents, we have been trapped in the middle of the difficulty. They oppress us in the only place we can stay. It is a prison,” says one of the affected people, who prefers to remain anonymous.
Among the most vulnerable people, there is a pregnant woman with a due date, two women who gave birth in the middle of a flood, another with a recent cesarean section, a newborn and a child with autism spectrum disorder. According to Marcela Bahamón, a member of the Intercultural Association of Home and Care Professionals (AIPHyC), the owner cut off their electricity supply and prevented them from accessing the kitchen: “She even threw a microwave at them on the street so that they would not they could prepare their food,” he says.
Along similar lines, the testimony that resides in the place explains that the reason for the expulsion is because “the administrator wants to collect aid from the City Council intended to relocate people affected by DANA.” Furthermore, he maintains that everything is a facade because they are taking advantage of doing “business.”
The manager of the place, Isabel Carretero, with whom elDiario.es has contacted, denies all this information and assures that tomorrow she will file a lawsuit in court: “The police called me to tell me that they had shot a family. No one has been fired. We have always taken care of everyone. I am not paid nor have I received any help. “I don’t know why this fuss has been made.”
The person in charge of the hostel explains that a fee is deposited to reside in the convent, but those who cannot take care of it are “told that nothing happens”: “We cannot have these problems. The neighbors support me and tell me that people do not comply with the rules and are bothersome in the wee hours of the morning.”
Asked about the complaints that blame her for prohibiting them from going about their daily lives or breaking objects, Carretero invites anyone to “stop by the place and see that it is not true.”
Under the name Cierto Cierto, the organization in charge of managing the hostel is not registered as a legal entity. On the website of the Archdiocese of Valencia, it is presented as “a non-profit association.” The telephone number that has been contacted is linked to a “senior care services agency in Valencia” called Siempre Adelante, whose headquarters are in the Ciutat Vella district of València.
The convent belongs to the Dominicans, a religious order of the Catholic Church; However, Isabel Carretero is the one who has the power to house the families, as she confirms. According to the AIPHyC, the organizations that are in charge of coordinating and finding a home for migrants – among which is Cáritas – are not aware that the manager “charges them a monthly rent of between 350 and 600 euros.” This newspaper has contacted the NGO linked to the Church, but has not received a response.
The Intercultural Association of Home and Care Professionals reports that the Torrent police only accepted one complaint from one affected person, and that the others rejected them: “They took the identification of five people and told them that they would call them.” Fearing that they would be expelled from the country, the organization has contacted the Crime Victims Office and has assured them that “no person currently in Spain can be repatriated,” and even less so if they are a victim: “At the police station “They were not clear about it because they did not take the complaint.” Those affected are afraid that the administrator will report them because she has the documentation of each member at her disposal.
Marcela Bahamón assures that this Wednesday she contacted the mayor of Torrent, Amparo Folgado, to tell her about the situation and that the councilor declined because “she was hoarse.” “I told him that I just wanted him to listen to me and he told me three times that he couldn’t speak. “I told him I was going to call the media.”
“We are also DANA survivors”
For unregulated migrants, it is difficult to find a safe place and gain access to the same rights as other citizens with nationality. The anonymous person who explains it relates that many families who arrived stayed at the hostel and formed a community: “Almost all the work is informal and poorly paid because we do not have documentation to work, and what we earn only goes to the rent”.
With DANA the situation became complicated. They were isolated: “Hunger made everything more dramatic. “Cáritas brought us food and that made the administrator angry because she knew we could focus on fighting to stay.”
“We are resisting on the outskirts of the place so that they relocate us to a decent place. We have no other alternative. Our economy is weak. We are in a second emergency. We are not asking for charity, we want them to respect our right to be in this country. We want the news to have an impact on society and not to be abandoned. We are also survivors of this catastrophe,” says the victim.
The testimony also highlights that although they were not overwhelmed by water, many of the residents had to fight for their lives on the way home, surviving the ravages of DANA.
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