Crossing Continents

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Crossing Continents: Catalonia: Squatters, Eviction and Extortion

Catalonia: Squatters, Eviction and Extortion

BBC Radio 4 - Crossing Continents, Catalonia: Squatters, Eviction and Extortion

How Catalonia’s housing crisis spawns opportunities for organised crime.

Spain has a history of squatting.  After the property crash of 2008 many families were forced to occupy homes that did not belong to them because they could not pay their mortgages.  Now a darker side to ‘okupacion’ has emerged.  Organised crime has seen an opportunity.  Some flats in Barcelona have become ‘narcopisos’ - properties used to process or sell drugs.  Other empty properties have been ‘sub-let’ by gangs to families who cannot afford a commercial rent.  And the pandemic has spawned a new commercial model – extortion.  These are cases where squatters occupy a property and demand a ‘ransom’ from the owner of several thousand Euros before they will leave.  Enter the controversial ‘desokupa’ companies – firms run by boxers and bouncers who will evict unwanted 'tenants'. 

Producer / Presenter:  Linda Pressly
Producer / Presenter in Spain:  Esperanza Escribano
Editor: Bridget Harney

(Image: Jorge Fe, director of FueraOkupas – a company dedicated to evicting squatters and unwanted tenants. Credit: BBC/Esperanza Escribano)

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Catalonia: Squatters, Eviction and Extortion

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