More than fifty people of different nationalities were evicted today from an illegal settlement on the Camino de la Virgen, in the Barranco del Agua (Adeje). Members of the Civil Guard and the Local Police appeared preventively at the scene from early in the morning, although no incidents were recorded.
This Tuesday the first phase of the operation was completed and it is expected that throughout the day tomorrow the last 40 people left today will leave the area, close to several hotel complexes. There are no minors among the evacuees, as confirmed by several sources consulted by this newspaper.
Cáritas, which sent several technicians to the site, warned about the situation of around thirty homeless people, whom the NGO has been monitoring for two years in some cases. He is concerned about the state of eight of them, with health problems, four of whom are over 60 years old.
“Asking them to take their things and go with their house on their backs to another place is very complicated,” José Antonio Díez, coordinator of the Caritas Street Mobile Attention Units project, told this newspaper, in permanent contact with the technicians displaced to the Water Ravine.
From Cáritas it is not questioned that it acts on a public space – “the administrations are within their rights”, he assures -, but regrets that an accommodation alternative is not offered to these people, “so the problem will continue and the only thing that changes it is that it moves of site”.
It is assumed that the evicted will settle in other areas of the municipality or even in other parts of the south of the island, as has happened in previous episodes. In fact, some of those affected had already been evacuated almost two years ago from the La Caleta area.
Report on the situation in the Barranco del Agua
Since becoming aware of the notifications from the Adeje Town Hall For the eviction of the space, the NGO of the Catholic Church sent a “situation report” to the Consistory that, finally, could not stop the action of the mechanical shovels on the settlement, formed for the most part by caves, self-constructions of wood and campaign booths.
“There were people who did not know what to do or where to go, they had frustration reflected on their faces and asked for advice,” said Díez, who acknowledged that among those affected “there is everything,” including people who have chosen to settle in the ravine as a “life option”, in contact with nature, unlike the most serious cases: those of those who do not have a roof under which to shelter.
