A Spanish police operation involving about 250 officers has evicted 300 squatters, including 180 children, from an apartment building in the autonomous community of Madrid, Spanish news agency Europa Press reported on Friday, citing sources in the local police
MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd June, 2023) A Spanish police operation involving about 250 officers has evicted 300 squatters, including 180 children, from an apartment building in the autonomous community of Madrid, Spanish news agency Europa Press reported on Friday, citing sources in the local police.
Two people were arrested in the operation � a 47-year-old man, for violation of a suspended sentence, and a 55-year-old woman, for drug trafficking, the news agency reported.
No incidents were reported during the eviction. Some squatter families had illegally lived in the apartment building since 2009, the news agency said.
Squatters, known as okupas in Spanish, burgeoned during the 2008 economic crisis. Spain was a social welfare-oriented state at the time and had a law protecting the interests of tenants facing economic difficulties. This resulted in a rapid increase in the number of squatters who illegally occupied vacant houses and lived there without paying any rent or public utilities charges.
