Emma Carolina Escobera 40-year-old Honduran woman, was taking care of Francisco, an 82-year-old man, when the flood broke out in Benetússer, a small Valencian town that is among the 71 affected by the DANA. At least ten people died there that day. Suddenly the power went out, the water began to rise, it reached Francisco’s home on the first floor and she believed that the old man under her responsibility could die. The experience left Emma Carolina traumatized. The word that repeats the most when reviewing that day is “anguish.” Since then he has had trouble sleeping and is losing his hair. Francis He was able to save his life thanks to this woman and several neighbors of the building. Together, they were able to get him up to the floor. Ruth Moyano on the fourth floor. That night more than 20 people slept in that home. Rut remembers that Emma Carolina did not want to be separated from Francisco for even a minute. She spent the night lying on the floor, next to the bed of Ruth’s eldest son, which is the one in which Francisco slept.
Emma Carolina does not have papers. It is in an irregular administrative situation. He arrived in Spain four months ago with the dream of finding a decent life but DANA shattered that hope. She has not yet managed to register and is living on loan at a friend’s house in Torrent, almost three hours walk from Francisco’s apartment. Emma Carolina is desperate to find a room in Benetússer because in her sea of uncertainty there is only one certainty: “I am going to continue taking care of my grandfather“.
Emma Carolina does not exist in the eyes of the State but she plays an essential role in the lives of others. In Valencia there are between 43,000 and 47,000 people living in an irregular situation, according to estimates by the porCausa research team. Like Emma Carolina, they are invisible in the eyes of the State and, therefore, are excluded from any aid or planned measures. to get back to normal. Emma Carolina is dedicated to caring. Who takes care of her?
“We haven’t learned anything”
Members of the Local Police of Badajoz or Jerez de la Frontera directing traffic together with agents of the Foral Police of Navarra. UME soldiers and firefighters draining water from garages. Anonymous volunteersmost of them young, tirelessly cleaning mud between rubble and destroyed cars. Small businesses distributing vegetables, detergent, bread, what they can, what they have left. A month after DANA, the municipalities devastated by water continue to offer a desolate and surreal landscape. In this reality live an unknown number of people invisible in the eyes of the State who have also lost everything. They are second class citizens and they are helpless. As happened during the pandemicthe emergency highlights the fundamental role of these people but, once again, the State has abandoned them.
The Generalitat Valenciana and the Government of Spain have launched emergency aid for people affected by the disaster. The requirement for most of these benefits is to have a DNI, which excludes thousands of people in an irregular situation. DANA does not distinguish between races, creed or origin, but the State does. In Benetussera working class town that grew in the 50s and 60s due to immigration from Andalusia and other areas of Spain, it is the community networks that supply the Government and provide support to the undocumented migrants. In response to this media, the Benetússer City Council claims to be preparing “a municipal aid decree that will greatly facilitate the situation of migrants, whether in a regular or irregular situation.” The council, under the control of the Socialist Party, indicates that it will provide temporary housing and strengthen advice channels, and admits that “at this time the response is not being effective.”
The Government has set up mobile offices of the National Police so that affected residents can renew their DNI without having to travel to Valencia. Many migrants who do have a residence permit have lost their NIE, but there are no facilities for them. One of these police vans is near the house where Emma Carolina takes care of Francisco. The three agents respond by crossing their arms when asked why they don’t also renew the NIE of foreigners. To the questions of Public In this regard, the Ministry of the Interior responds that this procedure is not authorized because “it requires the intervention of the National Mint and Stamp Factory.” It does not specify if they are considering any changes in this regard. Anyone who wants to renew their NIE is obliged to travel to Valencia.
“We already experienced it in the covid, it seems that nothing has been learned,” he says Eugenia Torresfrom the intercultural association Candombe, which helps migrants affected by DANA. Torres explains that the Generalitat enabled aid in which it is not essential to present the DNI, but the process is “a chimera.” Furthermore, it is only possible to request one aid per household and some homes house many migrant families at the same time who live overcrowded under the same roof because they cannot afford anything else. “These are people who were in a vulnerable situation and who have been left in an even more vulnerable situation.”
Pedro Sánchez and his ministers claim to lead the “most progressive Government” in the history of Spain. In fact, the Ministry of Labor is in the hands of Yolanda Díaz, a former member of the Communist Party. As in the pandemic, the Government has implemented mechanisms to facilitate Temporary Employment Regulation Files with which workers in companies affected by the disaster can collect unemployment benefits. The Ministry of Labor also allows affected workers to be absent from work without retaliation. Dismissing workers for causes related to DANA is strictly prohibited. Migrants in an irregular situation are completely excluded from this labor umbrella.
The Government’s star measure towards the affected foreigners is a temporary exemption in the payment of fees for certain procedures (visa application, renewal of the NIE…) and a moratorium until January 30, 2025 for those who had bureaucratic commitments with the Immigration offices. Many people have lost the papers with which they could request roots, one of the most common procedures for those who want to regularize their situation. For these people, the Government does not consider alternatives, at least for the moment.
Aissam Edaoui It arrived in Torrent in 2021, one of the affected towns. This 26-year-old Moroccan was working without a contract in Paiporta doing work as a plasterer and painter. He continued working after DANA, waking up at five in the morning to arrive at work on time at eight o’clock due to the absence of public transportation. Last week, his boss, whom he defines as “good people,” told him that “there is no more work.” Aissam has just moved in with some acquaintances. Without a job, he can’t pay his rent in Torrent. This young man cannot benefit from the ERTE because he does not have papers, a problem that affects all workers in an irregular situation. Now he dedicates his time to preparing food for affected neighbors.
This medium asked by email to Ministry of Labor about these and other testimonies from people in an irregular situation who were fired and who cannot benefit from ERTE. The portfolio he manages Yolanda Diaz He didn’t respond. Nor do the Valencian Department of Equality answer any questions, the Generalitat ValencianaPresidency of the Government of Spain, the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration; nor the town councils of Alfafar, Algemesí, Picanya, Paiporta, Catarroja and Massanassa.
The list of abandonments experienced by migrants affected by DANA does not end there. Manik Singha citizen of India with a residence permit, was going to open his fruit store in Paiporta on the 30th, but a day before the water destroyed everything. Now he distributes free food. When he went to ask about aid, “they told me I had to wait and not yet,” he explains. This and other foreign workers regret the difficulties in accessing information related to the emergency. Singh doesn’t know how much longer he can keep going.
Gaston Ariel Riverowho comes daily to clean up mud and fix bicycles in the most affected towns, has already become accustomed to searches for racial profiling. Now “they let me pass because they know what I’m doing,” he explains, “but if you have a criminal record or don’t have documentation, you go to the cell directly.” The testimony of this Argentine coincides with that of dozens of boys of African and Latin American descent: “They are stopping and detaining, above all, migrant people.”
According to the most recent data, Of the 222 lives claimed by the storm in Valencia, 26 were foreigners. DANA swept the orange, tangerine and persimmon season. Sources from migrant groups fear that there are a high number of missing and dead foreign temporary workers who would be really difficult to identify. They are people without papers, invisible in the eyes of the State.
“We are people; out of humanity, in the face of a catastrophe you cannot leave people abandoned,” he says. Silvana Cabreraspokesperson for Regularization Now. “Migrants defend the right that this is also our land; I want to think that this is an opportunity to correct previous mistakes,” he says. This and other migrant groups continue to wait for progress in the Popular Legislative Initiative that, after obtaining more than 700,000 signatures with DNI, brought to the Congress of Deputies a proposal to regularize the half a million migrants living in Spain without papers.
With the collaboration of Patricia Macías, Dalila Olmo and Pablo Fernández.
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