Family with new-born evicted in Madrid

A FAMILY including a new born baby has been evicted from their home despite protesters trying to halt a police intervention.

The UIP Police Intervention Unit executed the eviction of Jorge Aviles, Yolanda de Diego and their three  sons despite the protest staged by anti-eviction activists in Madrid.

The unemployed couple occupied a flat in the working class neighbourhood of Usera in Spain’s capital, with their three children aged nine years, three years and a newborn of only 21 days old.

They were nine months behind on their mortgage payments, and had been threatened with foreclosure numerous times by the Kutxabank.

The police first threw out the activists camping on the steps and hallways of the building, then blocked the entrances to theblock where the family resided, and then ordered the press to leave the building with their cameras turned off.

The distraught family was helped by anti-eviction activists to move their belongings after the repossession of their home by the bank.

It has been reported that at least six activists of Victims’ Mortgage Platform (PAH) were arrested while trying to stop the removal of the family, while two more were injured during the eviction

The high number of evictions related to financial woes in Spain have driven more than 100 people to suicides, while mass protests on the issue have become more frequent with the public outraged at the government’s perceived lack of action to combat this regular occurrence in Spain.

The Governor of the Bank of Spain, Luis Maria Linde, branded the high number of ongoing evictions in Spain as a “humanitarian concern,” and led the call for “social initiatives” to combat the phenomenon. He said: “We must urgently address social and humanitarian issues, this will have to be organised, but we can do it.”