Pilgrims who walk the Camino de Santiago alone report having suffered “terrifying” sexual harassment in almost desert areas of rural Spain, Portugal and France. In interviews with Guardiannine women who have walked the path in the last five years claim to have suffered harassment and several indicate that they feared for their lives.
Seven of them claim to have encountered men in Spain and Portugal who masturbated or touched themselves in their presence. One of the pilgrims was chased by one of these men through the countryside. One of the women says she had to fend off unwanted touching and lewd comments from several men, while another pilgrim explains that a man stopped by a van and urged her to get in. Incidents usually occur when women walk alone along remote sections of the Camino.
Lorena Gaibor, founder of Camigas, an online forum that has been connecting pilgrims since 2015, says the allegations are shocking, but not surprising: “Sexual harassment is endemic. It is something very common. Every year we receive complaints from women who suffer this type of situation.”
These routes are claimed to be safe and saying otherwise is taboo.
Marie Albert
— journalist
Rosie, 25, explains that she was walking along a wooded path in Portugal earlier this summer when she came across a pantsless man masturbating. The local police did not answer his calls. “I was very scared,” says Rosie, who has asked that her full name not be published: “I felt like I was completely alone.” He realized his vulnerability in taking the path alone and felt he was taking risks. “Doing the Camino de Santiago is an incredible experience, because it is very difficult, very physically demanding and very mentally demanding,” he says. “But there is an additional element that hikers who walk alone face, a serious safety problem, which completely affects the ability to face those other challenges or enjoy it like other people do,” he adds.
230,000 women a year
In recent years, the popularity of the various pilgrimage routes known collectively as the Camino de Santiago has skyrocketed, especially among women. According to Pedro Blanco, Government Delegate in Galicia, last year 446,000 people walked the Camino, 53% of them women. In statements to the media, Blanco noted that “more than 230,000 women did it last year, and many of them did not hesitate to do it alone.”
Marie Albert, journalist, who defines herself as an adventurer and feminist writer, affirms that not enough is said about the risks that pilgrims face: “It is stated that these routes are safe and to say otherwise is taboo.” In 2019, while Albert walked 700 km through northern Spain to reach Santiago de Compostela, he documented several attacks. One man tried to kiss her and another masturbated in front of her. A man harassed her by SMS and another followed her on the street. Sometimes her attackers were pilgrims who took the same route as her, so she was terrified of crossing paths with them again.
Of the nine women who spoke with Guardiansix reported the incidents to the police. In only one case did the police locate and arrest the aggressor.
In recent years, the media has covered some of these incidents. In 2018, a 50-year-old Venezuelan woman was allegedly kidnapped and raped by two men while walking in northwestern Spain. Last year, Spanish police arrested a 48-year-old man accused of holding a 24-year-old German pilgrim against her will in his home and sexually assaulting her. In 2019, police in Portugal arrested a 78-year-old man accused of kidnapping and attempting to rape a pilgrim from Germany.
Concern for the safety of female pilgrims came to light in 2015 after the disappearance of American pilgrim Denise Thiem in a rural area of the province of León (Spain). His disappearance led several pilgrims to tell their own stories of threats and harassment, before a court sentenced a Spanish man to 23 years in prison in 2017 for Thiem’s murder.
Safety campaign
In 2021, the Spanish government launched a safety campaign that has since expanded to 1,600 points throughout Galicia, where pilgrims can access information in multiple languages on how to contact emergency services.
Johnnie Walker, one of the administrators of Camino de Santiago All Routes, a social media forum with more than 450,000 members, says there has long been frustration over the lack of statistics, even though efforts have been intensified. to prevent these incidents.
In this sense, he points out that “as the number of pilgrims has grown, so have reports of men harassing female pilgrims.” In response, the Civil Guard has intensified patrols on several routes.
Their forum has long been advising pilgrims in Spain to download the AlertCops application, which allows them to contact the police directly. “There is always a balance to be found between warning women and causing alarm,” she says: “However, some of us think this issue now needs to be addressed more forcefully and consistently across the country.”
In response to a request for information from Guardianthe Portuguese police have explained that since 2023 they have received five complaints from pilgrims, all of them related to incidents of exhibitionism. None of the suspects were identified and no arrests were made. In a statement, the police said that, between May and October, they reinforced patrols on several Portuguese routes to better protect pilgrims.
Guardian He has also contacted the police of Spain and France, as well as the ministries of the Interior of those countries, but they have not responded to the request for information. When asked if there was an official count of pilgrims who had reported incidents of harassment in the last five years, the Government Delegation in Galicia stressed in a statement that it is not aware of any case of sexual assault against pilgrims. The Government Delegation in Galicia has launched a series of initiatives aimed at protecting people who walk the Camino de Santiago, such as specific police patrols along the itineraries and an established protocol that requires security forces to be sent every time. that a call is received from a pilgrim.
#Pilgrims #walk #Camino #Santiago #denounce #terrifying #sexual #harassment
