The specialised company responsible for evicting several squatters from Punta Arabí has already recovered “over half of the occupied flats”.
According to Daniel Esteve, the head of ‘Desokupa‘, the tenants had made off with “quite a lot of money” in the form of furniture and household appliances. He also explained that some of the flats were inhabited by 20 families with children who had nothing to do with the “looting”.
“We are starting to recover the flats and trying to come to relocation agreements for these people who have nothing to do with this group of ‘squatters’,” he stated.
According to Esteve, the access controls put in place hours ago have stopped “a lot of people” who had tried to occupy one of the flats. “The whole complex was almost completely lost,” he said.
The head of the company has estimated the number of squatters in this part of Santa Eulària to be “150 or more”. Esteve noted that this is the largest operation organised by his company in Spain in seven years.
“We are not going to move from the complex and we will take care of the security issue because there are fears that this could happen again. At the same time, we will begin the refurbishment of the complex,” he explained.
According to Esteve, some of the evicted squatters have tried to enter two hotels in the area. He also pointed out that during the process there have been three moments of tension when, according to him, a “violent” group tried to intimidate the guards with knives, sticks and dogs, and one person “tried to run over” the guards controlling access.