Malaga squatters and property owners clash over five flats

The property owners want to regain possession of the five flats, while the residents say they will not leave without social housing or a court order. Police attended the scene to mediate between the families and the company, which said it had come to negotiate a voluntary departure.

"The building had only just been completed or was still under construction; either way, it was empty. We saw that the entrance corridor was dirty and that people were coming here to take drugs. We thought that, before someone else moved in, we would move in ourselves," one of the inhabitants told Sur.

Another woman interrupted to explain that, before moving into the building, she had been living on the streets, moving from one doorway to another. The residents also stressed that the block is home to pregnant women and children.

A man representing the property owners stood alongside the eviction company's staff. "These people have committed the offence of unlawful occupation. There is a final court ruling. We will make no further comment," he said.

The spokesperson for the eviction company was more forthcoming. "We have come here to negotiate. The owners are foreigners, one is Moroccan and the other British. This is their primary residence and they want to live here," he said. His account contradicted that of one of the residents, who claimed that the building was going to become yet another block full of tourist flats.

The eviction company's spokesperson insisted that its intention was to "negotiate amicably" with the families. He told Sur that the company had offered them 4,000, 5,000 or 6,000 euros to leave, "depending on each family's circumstances".

According to his account, the residents were demanding 20,000 euros in exchange for moving out. The families, however, told Sur that they would not leave "even for 10,000 euros". "Where are we supposed to go with that money? Pay rent for a few months and then what? What do we do afterwards?" they asked.

"We want social housing rents like the ones we used to have, at 300 or 400 euros. Rents in Malaga are now impossible to afford. I work with wealthy people and even they say they are struggling, so imagine what it is like for us, the working class," they said.

The residents said the eviction company's employees had arrived aggressively, banging on doors, damaging the electricity connections and preventing a pregnant woman from entering the building when she returned after taking her child to school. They called the police in response.

The National Police subsequently arrived in Plaza de la Escritora Rosa Chacel. Their apparent role was to mediate between the residents and the company hired by the owners to speed up the eviction.

The families insisted that they could not leave without somewhere else to live and access to social housing. They also said they would not move out without a court eviction order, which they claimed they had not yet received.

While the residents complained about the eviction company's aggressive behaviour, its employees alleged that they had received threats. "They told us they were going to mobilise the whole neighbourhood," they said.

In the end, the incident passed peacefully. The property representative and the eviction company's employees left in one direction, while the police headed off in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, the residents of the block, whose balconies were lined with hanging laundry, discussed the morning's events with neighbours and curious onlookers.

It was not the first time something like this had happened, they said, and they suspected it would not be the last.

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