Flowers and a poster with photos in memory of the family that died in the fire on November 30, 2021, a few days later, in front of the occupied premises where they lived.Joan Sanchez (EL PAÍS)
The clerk at the bakery that is two doors away from the old bank office occupied in Barcelona's Plaza de Tetuan, where a year ago a family died in a fire, tears up when she remembers it: “We were screwed.
They lived on the premises, but with a lot of dignity and they took care of the children like nobody else, here they bought them cookies, they played with other children”.
This Wednesday marks one year since the death of Violeta and Saki (the parents, of Romanian and Pakistani origin), from Alsalam, three years old;
and baby Zaara, six months old.
In the heart of Eixample, the central and noble district.
Barcelona City Council points out that the number of families living in occupied premises has fallen over the last year: from 105 premises to 79;
from 481 people to 380;
from 156 minors, to 120. The reason,
there are fewer empty spaces and evictions are faster.
Occupations in ships and settlements have also dropped (from 86 to 63).
Workers from the social services environment and entities respond that the figure can fluctuate, but that the problem and its causes are the same: the lack of public housing and the irregular administrative and employment situation of many of these families make it difficult to offer them care (without an NIE it is not can choose the minimum income) and alternatives.
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"The vulnerability is maximum, it can happen again at any time," agree a firefighter and a social worker consulted.
"The situation has not changed, the families that are forced to occupy precariously are the most vulnerable and without supplies the risk is evident," they point out from the Alliance Against Energy Poverty.
And they tell how the families, the majority of whom are from Romania, cook or heat themselves: natural gas stoves adapted to butane, heaters, stoves with resistors, hair dryers, ovens, firewood... The investigators of the Mossos d'Esquadra did not reach determine the exact cause of the fire, they indicated that the origin was close to one of the beds.
After the fire, Violeta's family explained that she had four other children in Romania and asked for help to repatriate the bodies.
Finally, it was the Pakistani consulate that paid for the transfer: the father and child were buried in the Asian country, and the mother and baby, in Buzau, south of Bucharest, explain municipal sources and DC, the woman's cousin, who, after a year, does not feel like talking.
Her brother also returned to her country.
Of the four Pakistanis who also lived in the occupied premises, which had a ground floor and a basement, one went to live in Toledo and the other three are still housed in municipal facilities and "have an active work plan."
The occupied office, on November 30, 2021, the morning after the fire. Carles Ribas (EL PAÍS)
In the fatal case of the Tetuan square, the public care circuits worked until they ran into the lack of public housing and the irregular situation of the parents.
The place had been detected by the neighbours, reviewed by the Mossos, who included it in a census of risk places, and the municipal social services attended to the family: he collected scrap metal, the boy had just started school 100 meters from the local and received normal medical attention, and the mother cared for the baby, who was premature.
“At three years old, this creature had the world ahead of him, he had an opportunity, I remember his face the first day he flushed [in the local they did not have water and they collected it from the source], he was awake and drenched from everything .
The treatment with the parents was impeccable and we loved him very much.
It always rains when it pours."
they lament from school, where they describe last year as "complex".
Alsalam's classmates have his photo in class.
After the event, the City Council service for the social integration of families with minors (SISFAM), 12 outsourced workers who care for minors who live in warehouses or occupied premises and who had cared for the family, issued a harsh statement.
They denounced the lack of means with which they work, that there are many more families in the same situation and that the lack of affordable housing and their irregular administrative situation "leads them to live in substandard housing."
"It is flagrant that nothing is done to prevent children from having to live in these conditions of poverty, risk and social exclusion," they settled.
Agents of the scientific police from the Mossos d'Esquadra body investigated for days the causes of the fire, which they did not find exactly. Carles Ribas
Sources from the central social services warn of the job insecurity of their colleagues, whose income can be "up to 12,000 euros less per year."
In social networks they denounce their conditions.
The SISFAM service has not been strengthened, the only change they are aware of is that they now have more budget to help families, and that, if any nucleus with minors renounces social care, they must notify the Prosecutor's Office.
The City Council Social Action Commissioner, Sònia Fuertes, points out the social accompaniment of the family and highlights the work of SISFAM.
“It was fortuitous, which limits the ability to prevent, the accompaniment was impeccable and we have to denounce the impact of the Immigration Law in situations of homelessness: it does not give options to develop rights, such as employment or the guarantee of income”.
Regarding the working conditions of the service, she calls for "reflecting on the entire sector of social action, there is a long way to improve work, the debate is unavoidable and the new counselor also says so".
The burnt-out office, which closed in the summer of 2019 and had been for sale a few months before the fire, was reoccupied after the fire.
It was a few weeks, a group used it "to store things," the neighbors say.
Sources of the property, Evo Banco, assure that "it was at the judicial disposal" for a time and now it is being conditioned to put it up for sale or rent again, the destination is still unknown.
The premises measure 540 meters, in two heights and has an exit to the patio of lights of the building.
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