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Unemployment in Europe has reached a record high. It’s now at 10 % among the countries that use the Euro currency. As jobs disappear the number of people on the street across Europe has risen. And more are seeking shelter in airports. In Spain airports are a relatively safe sanctuary. The World’s Gerry Hadden explains from Barcelona. Download MP3 (flickr image by Arrels Fundació)
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MARCO WERMAN: European countries like the U.S. are experiencing high unemployment. As jobs disappear, the number of people living on the streets across Europe has risen. In Spain some of the homeless are seeking shelter in airports. The World’s Gerry Hadden explains from Barcelona.
GERRY HADDEN: Being homeless is usually a nightmare, no matter what the scenario. But ending up here on the floor of Barcelona’s International Airport is far from the worst of them, so says a thirty-something couple named Juan and Maria. They sit outside the public bathrooms in this noisy terminal rolling cigarettes from scraps of tobacco they find in the airport trash. Here there’s more security personnel, says Juan. They make sure people don’t come around and harass you or beat you up. It’s much more dangerous on the streets. Maria says that on the streets someone can come along and punch your lights out, or they might rob you thinking you have something of value in your stuff. Juan and Maria are among about 50 homeless people living in this terminal. They push their worldly possessions around on airport carts. They mostly keep to themselves, only banning together to ward off the occasional thief. Barcelona’s airport is easier to live in than say JFK or London’s Heathrow. In Heathrow the cops evict the homeless. In New York, teams of social workers follow them around. But here Juan and Maria say no one can tell you what to do. They’re free to roam as they please through the long high ceiling check in halls as far as the passenger security checkpoints. Although the authorities would like to toss us out, they can’t, the couple says. There’s a law that prevents them. This is a public space and it’s always open, so you can’t evict someone. Juan knows the ins and outs of airport rules. The unemployed security guard has been here for more than a year. Maria arrived just a few months ago. She was a seasonal farm hand. The two met here. Neither of them has any money, not even to ride the bus into town to eat at the soup kitchens. The restaurants here don’t give us any food, Juan explains. We survive on what we pull from the garbage cans. We divvy up what we find so it lasts the whole week. Yogurts, anything in cans or wrapped in plastic. Sausage from sandwiches, whatever we can conserve. The homeless here can also use the public bathrooms where they wash up. In fact, some manage to stay well groomed enough to blend in among travelers, but authorities know who they are and Juan and Maria say that with peak tourism season approaching, airport managers are now pressuring them to leave. They’re starting to treat us badly Juan says. They’ve just taken out all of the benches to keep us from lying down. And now they’ve taken to waking us up each day at 5:30 in the morning. You can’t sleep during the day here in the airport any longer. If the security guards catch you they wake you and make you go outside. Airport representatives couldn’t immediately respond for comment. It’s Holy week in Spain. But one worker appears and warns Juan and Maria not to speak to journalists. You can’t talk t anyone here, the woman says. If you talk to reporters, you’ll be in hot water. They could toss you out for talking to the press. When the airport employee leaves, Juan and Maria shrug off the encounter. They say they’re used to run ins with authority. Plus, they know the law is on their side. What’s more difficult, Juan says, is dealing with the travelers. He says it’s awful how the people look at you. Maria says they stare at you shamelessly or worse. Just yesterday a woman passing by tossed her trash on my cart as if it were a garbage can. Occasionally someone will give you a sandwich or something. Others come by and stop and just look at you. They laugh, says Juan. Sometimes they step on you on purpose. Juan says he’s lost all sense of time here. As thousands of passengers stream past, day in day out, traveling for pleasure or work; two things he lacks. For The World, I’m Gerry Hadden in Barcelona.
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