Immigration management in Catalonia, before the Salt mirror

And it is that the altercations, with a dozen burned containers and launches of stones and other forceful objects against the police, have occurred in full political contest for immigration control in Cataloniaafter the pact between the central government and Junts, and have put in the Diana the immigrant population of Salt, a municipality with more than 43 percent of censored foreigners, and some different 80 nationalities. The majority, the Moroccan, followed by Hondurans, Gambians and Malians, such as Konateh.

But in the eighties, with the boom of the textile industry, it also received a large number of inhabitants from other areas of Spain, such as Carmen Blázquezwho moved along with his now late husband, Emilio, from his safe from the Sierra (Jaén) native to the people of Gerunds, “already has a frying of 46 years,” he explains in the living room of his floor, in the same building as the Ahlu-Sunna mosque, surrounded by photos of his grandchildren. The only complaint of this retiree is to wake her up with the prayer of six in the morning. “They are not hours,” he reproaches. For the rest, it emphasizes: «In my house we are not racist. We have always met educated peopleof those that, wherever they are, when they see you, they offer to help you with the purchase bags ».

He learned of the altercations on television. And his reproach is aimed at those who squat, evidencing the irrelevance of their origin: «I don’t understand. I have worked a lot, I have lived in better and worse places, but I do not conceive this“, ditch.

Already on the street, Xavi, purchase bag in hand, confirms that “after the eviction there has been more tension.” «Let’s see if the thing calms down, and in a few days we return to normal. Here they live quietly, people adapt and there are no coexistence problems, ”he says.

Hooded

What happened has served to stir the debate on immigration in Catalonia. Beyond the demands of the Carles Puigdemont party to maintain its support for the Government of Pedro Sánchez, it has been wielded by all political formations in the Parliament as a throwing weapon, but without deepening at the bottom of the matter and its complex approach. From the CUP to Vox. While a deputy anti -system said that “in Catalonia, launching stones at the Mossos is a cultural fact”, thus reaping the reproach of agents unions, which demand their resignation, Ignacio Garrig As one of his daughters, Henda, as well as the rest of the Islamic communities of the people not only were disconnected from what happened, but were condemned and made available to both the City Council and the Police to stop the incidents. The altercations were starring hooded young people and their only result has been to contribute to criminalize the whole of the foreign population, as Konateh pointed out – «With what they have done, they don’t help anyone» -.

In the surroundings of the Salt City Councilthe buildings that decades hosted inhabitants of other communities that settled in Catalonia to prosper now are the African and Sub -Saharan neighborhood. “They live but do not mix,” says a neighbor about both communities. Their bass welcomes halal butchers, barbers, clothing stores, or supermarkets that run themselves.

A few meters from the Drissi, Fouad, 46 years, explains that two years ago he moved from Morocco to this municipality that, walking, is a few minutes from Gerona. With an umbrella under his arm because of the threat of rain, he says he works as a Arab professor in an association. «Everything is fine here, there is no coexistence problem», He argues.

On the same street, three 16 -year -old friends, Amy, Benke and Fatuborn in Salt. The mother of the first calls her from the fruit shop to bring her the purchase car closer, because she already loads with a bag of oranges. On the screen of her mobile, the teenager shows one of the videos of the unrest.

The young people secondary what the town mayor, Jordi Viñas (ERC) pointed out, after the two nights of altercations: that those responsible – mostly hooded – did not intend to protest against the eviction of the magnet but, rather, look for gresca. «In the morning there were people who approached the City Council to try to speak and complain because they have left the family without a floor, but nothing happened. At night were others », minors and some young people,« the ‘manguis’ of always. People who have no head and take advantage of the situation», Points one of the girls. None of the adolescents know that the magnet was expelled for a mortgage debt, after several years of default. Nor that the Consistory clarified that he did not receive help from social services because, for his salary, he is not in vulnerability.

Despite this, they refuse: “But it has not been the only eviction, here people are being thrown.” Without knowing it, they focus on one of the main problems of the municipality, which extends to other populations in Catalonia: The access to housing. As detailed by its mayor, in Salt there are about 700 people pointed in the waiting list, which is why the Consistory claims to the great holders the transfer of floors to the administration to allocate them to the social rent.

“Revenue”

From the Municipal Government they insisted on decourageing the eviction of the religious leader of the Algaradas, confirming that those who starred in them were opportunistic with the covered face, of which they take advantage of the slightest occasion to generate altercations. This is also secreted Rafaat SarajeddinSecretary of the Islamic Community of the Salt’s largest mosqueImán Malik, who emphasizes: «We have nothing to do, and we have contacted the City Council to help in whatever it takes. We reject everything that has happened. They have been some young people, and even worse, in a sacred month such as Ramadan ».

At the doors of the temple, Sarajeddin regrets: «This will take advantage of the ultra -right to get revenue and point us out».