The long-awaited dream of working in Spain as a lifeguard to achieve savings, send money to the family and even save part of the salary for raising children has ended up being a scam.
“In the end, I haven't won anything.
I have lost more than 3,000 euros and I have won 3,000 euros.
They have deceived me, ”says a 25-year-old Peruvian who worked in a swimming pool in Madrid and who wanted to report his case to EL PAÍS with a folder full of documents.
“Now, emotionally… I don't feel good emotionally either.
I have a lot of uncertainty, I'm down, alone.
I had high hopes for this job, but it was a scam.
I've had three days off all summer.
Hopefully I can get my money back."
In his right hand he carries a lifeguard diploma stating that he passed a course in June.
It's false.
I haven't even taken that course.
More information
From Peru to your community pool: the scam that hires lifeguards in Spain who don't even know how to swim
A report published on Sunday by this newspaper revealed how some Spanish and Peruvian companies do business by bringing lifeguards to Spain from Peru who don't even know how to swim.
Entrepreneurs, both in Lima and Madrid, profit from the issuance of first-aid certificates (sometimes false or unnecessary), charging exorbitant amounts – between 350 and 800 euros – for the procedures with which their clients will obtain their visa to work. in Spain, where they will be exploited once they are in the pool.
The lifeguards, most of them young people between 18 and 30 years old, end up investing a large part of their savings in an opportunity that is not such.
In just 48 hours since its publication,
Almost thirty people contacted this newspaper to report scams and serious irregularities in their hiring as lifeguards in different swimming pools and beaches in Spain (Ibiza, Santander, León, Madrid, Alicante, Girona, Mallorca...).
They are Argentinean, Spanish and Peruvian.
The torrent of complaints reveals that the case denounced by El PAÍS is not an isolated one, but rather a
modus operandi
promoted by several companies to increase their yields.
Nor does it happen only in Madrid, where there are more than 10,000 community pools: the complaints come from various points of the Spanish territory.
“It is a slave trade in the 21st century.
They tell you that if you rest, they discount it.
The settlement is a lottery that they pay it, it is a ghost, ”denounces Edgardo Barrionuevo, an Argentine lifeguard of more than 50 years, who has been practicing in Spain for years.
"No one pays us at the price of the agreement," added several more of those consulted.
A group of Peruvian lifeguards, on Friday on a bench in a park in Madrid. Luis Sevillano
Spaniards and foreigners join forces to attract workers in their countries of origin, create
ad hoc
companies to hire them, adulterate official documents and falsify diplomas to certify that the workers meet the requirements.
The initial complaint, investigated by EL PAÍS, implicated companies in Madrid and Lima, but the emails received this week now come from Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Madrid, Catalonia and denounce irregularities in the hiring of Peruvians, but also Argentines and Romanians. .
Laura, a 39-year-old Peruvian who begs that her real name not be published, says that she first came to Spain in 2017 to work as a lifeguard.
She says that, to this day, the company that recruited her in Lima continues to bring hundreds of her compatriots to Madrid and other regions every summer.
“They gave me the title of lifeguard because she was a friend of one of them, without further ado.
I did not take any courses, ”she assures.
The Spanish company that hired her put her to work as soon as she arrived in Madrid and from the beginning of June to mid-September she did not take a single day off.
“The whole four months.
I worked from 10 in the morning to 9 at night in a neighborhood pool without stopping or eating, ”she relates.
“I ate because the pool was empty.
Thank God no incident happened to me.
At the end of the season, I collected my settlement.
with coronavirus
Another Peruvian says that he was given the title of lifeguard this year at a school in Madrid for simply being a surfer.
He did not take the course, although he paid for it.
The working conditions, as the rest denounce, were very improvable: he worked only one day in the whole summer and his payroll did not exceed 1,180 euros.
The man assures that he even worked with coronavirus: "I had a fever, they gave me two days and I returned on the condition that no one communicate that I was positive for covid."
It is not the only case that he has worked sick with coronavirus this summer.
“They told me there was no substitute.
Either he went, or he didn't get paid, ”denounces another who worked in a swimming pool north of Madrid.
Others say that in Lima there are companies that give up to 200 euros for each friend they get as clients,
An Argentine lifeguard over 40 years old tells from Ibiza in an email that on some island beaches —and very famous ones— there are cases of Spanish lifeguards who cannot swim.
"This is how service is provided on the beaches and with subhuman conditions," she says.
Some also count for Twitter messages that have not freed a single day, from May to September of this year.
"If you take days off, the salaries are a pittance," she writes a testimony.
A Peruvian tells that he ended up so indignant that he denounced his case when he returned to Lima: “It didn't help.
They did nothing".
Another of her compatriots has also sent an email with a similar situation: “I wish they would pay attention to us in Peru.
They cheat a lot.
It makes me angry that the title my husband has been given is possibly false.
It's 200 euros that they took from us,
The Embassy of Peru has urged the authorities of its country to urgently open an investigation.
More information
The Embassy of Peru urges its country to investigate the hiring of lifeguards in swimming pools and beaches in Spain
More cases.
Another Peruvian woman denounces that she paid her recruiters 700 euros for a lifeguard title and the paperwork to be hired in Spain this season.
A group of about 25 people, he says, stayed on the ground.
The trip never took place, supposedly because Spain denied them the permits.
They, however, did not see a single piece of paper to prove that denial.
The money was never returned.
Javier, a Spaniard who lives in Madrid, was a lifeguard years ago in his own neighborhood community in the capital because he knew the head of the company, without taking any exams.
And without a contract.
That was already 20 years ago.
These are just some of the cases of the victims, but several businessmen in the sector have also contacted this newspaper to denounce the "unfair competition" of those who do not comply with any standard.
They also talk about falsification of titles, lifeguards without a contract, in an irregular situation and the indolence of different administrations that look the other way.
The lack of control is absolute.
In Madrid there is no longer a record of the lifeguards who exercise, the inspections are insufficient and the picaresque has been very rehearsed for years.
Complaints within the sector —from workers and employers— are constant, but they are not even paid attention to when they denounce.
The dozen sources consulted assume that it is not uncommon to find lifeguards in swimming pools in Madrid and in the rest of Spain who do not know how to swim.
The Spanish Federation of Socorrismo y Salvamento affirms that this has been happening for at least 10 years.
"There is no type of control," explains its spokesman.
Do you know cases of irregularities in lifeguards in Spain?
Contact the journalists
mviejo@elpais.es
or
mmartind@elpais.es
or send them a message on Twitter at
@LoloViejo
or
@MMartinD
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