The residents of Milagrosa Street in Zaragoza know how to defend their rights and have won a victory: the City Council has ordered the eviction and closure from the illegal refugee shelter set up in early August. Early on Friday morning, the local police served the order and by the afternoon, there was no one in the shelter. Since then, no one has slept there.
However, the community of owners indicated to OKDIARIO that it would file a civil trial to the property and possibly also to the Cepaim foundation, arguing that the premises did not have a permit to carry out its activity. The neighbors are also considering filing a criminal complaint against the property, suspected of being an instrumental society for criminal purposes, as OKDIARIO learned.
The illegal refuge of Zaragoza
The NGO in charge of managing this illegal shelter is the NGO Cépaim Foundationwho informed the City Hall that he would start with the accommodation of 40 placesas agreed with the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration. Information that the Minister of the Presidency, Institutional Relations and Citizen Security of Zaragoza himself acknowledged knowing, Angel Lorensince the beginning of July, questioned by Vox this Thursday at the Commission.
On the contrary, as usually happens in these cases, no resident of Zaragoza has received or has received information about thisBut since July, those of La Milagrosa have begun to suspect that something was happening in the old Caritas premises. Suddenly, in mid-July, work began that worried the community. “You could feel that there was a lot of haste,” the neighbors explain.
Thanks to the investigative work carried out by the property manager, they were able, little by little, to verify that what was developing in the premises used for years as a nursing academy, It was not legal. To the point that they decided to rely on a law firm, that of Santiago Palazonto report to the National Police that the new owners were not respecting the ordinances, community statutes or the law.
Their tenacity in defending their rights finally led the city council to order the closure of the illegal shelter this week. However, the community of owners informed OKDIARIO that it would file a civil action against the property and possibly also against the Cepaim foundation, arguing that the premises did not have a license to carry out its activity, in addition to not being provided for in the statutes. of the community.
Instrumental society at the inn?
However, the case suggests that the trial will degenerate, since the lawyer has indications that there is a trap between the current property and the NGO installed on the premises.
The previous owner was Cáritas and the Brotherhood of Refuge 50% (a premises they received as a donation after the death of its original owner). In December of the same year, the Church managed to sell this premises to a recently founded company, Talayero and Langaritawho was only a month old when he bought the house for 238,000 euros.
The company did not need any bank loan. As OKDIARIO learned, it was the spouses, in equal shares, who bequeathed the money to the two partners through two other companies. Until then, everything could have been understandable, if the current owner had not presented a document stating that he had been in the premises for three years. without doing any activity. Precisely the time that must elapse for it to meet one of the conditions required for it to be converted into a house.
Something “obviously false,” the neighbors explain, since the place was active until last year. A fact that will demonstrate in a surprising way Caritas before the Municipal Council by presenting, once the premises were sold, the responsible activity file, informing that, until May 2023, the said activity took place. What motivated Caritas to present this information if it was no longer the owner of the premises?
Nobody knows, but this has raised suspicions among the lawyer in charge of the case, Santiago Palazón, to also consider filing a criminal complaint against the current property due to “the justified suspicion that Talayero Langarita SL is an instrumental society“, since “the documentation provided by the property does not correspond to reality”.
In addition, it must be taken into account that Caritas is an entity that collaborates with Cepaim, the entity that would ultimately develop the activity. In short, the whiting that bites its own tail.
The community will denounce
This Tuesday, the community of owners met in a extraordinary meeting in order to mark the next steps to be taken. The presence of a member of the company that owns the premises was requested at this meeting, in order to clarify what exactly is happening.
However, at this meeting, no member of the Talayero y Langarita society showed up, which deprived them of the right to vote. And precisely, the only purpose of the meeting was to continue the injunction action against the owner and the people responsible for the activities. Something that took place almost unanimously, since there was only one abstention from a neighbor.
As the community of neighbours has argued, the activities carried out in premises 11 are contrary to article 7.2 of the Horizontal Property Law. In fact, previously, the president of the community had sent a request a week ago, by burofax, to both the property and the NGO to stop the activity they were carrying out, because they were “unauthorized, harmful, dangerous or illicit activities”, which contravened the statutes and general provisions, warning that if they did not stop, they would be prosecuted in civil court.
I just answered Cepaim Foundationspecifying that the said burofax must “be due to an error”, since they consider that “no activity” of the type to which they refer “was carried out in the aforementioned premises”.
The community therefore decided to constitute itself as a civil party by asking the judge previous procedure as a preliminary step to the civil process, so that the property presents the documentation it has, since there are indications that there is a third party, the Cepaim company, which carries out the activity and, therefore, yes, there is a contract.
Cepaim and the illegal refuge
OKDIARIO managed to get into this hostel and we were actually able to verify that it has a large dining room, several roomswhere refugees are giving classes in one of them. The organization quickly fired these journalists. “You can’t go inside, it’s private property,” said one of the employees who guarded the center.
The coordinator in Aragon of Cepaim, Pilar Bernardothen helped us by phone, although he refused to give information about the activity they had started to carry out in the premises.
“We can talk later personally and I will explain our international reception and protection work“But not now,” he replied, “there are only 200 people left to stand up and protest in front of the gates, like in Mora de Rubielos.” “In fact, I am now coming out of a meeting with the Government Sub-Delegation and other entities to develop a coordinated strategy,” he added. Are they refugees? “Yes, they are refugees, but I can’t tell you anything else,” he concluded.
Cessation of activity
As we had anticipated, the city council issued an order to stop the activity on Thursday. An order that will complement the one already issued in July, with which the responsible declaration presented by the property to be able to carry out the necessary reforms to adapt the premises to the new uses was rejected, arguing that it was “a house“Since then, renovation work on the premises has enabled the premises to be transformed into a social shelter.
It was precisely these facts brought to the attention of the Town Hall by the neighbours which prompted the Urban Planning Department to declare the opposite. the responsible statementordering “the immediate cessation of work and the restoration of the legal situation at the time prior to the activity”.
In fact, the neighbors continue to complain that they continue to suffer.”small leaks” in the basements. Something they already suffered at the beginning of August, with a major incident in the main pipes, for what they consider “an alleged increase in sewage”, as a consequence of having “so many people residing inside”. “There are in fact nine bathrooms in the establishment”, the neighbors point out.
What happens to refugees?
Faced with this scandal, the municipal group of Voice The Zaragoza City Council registered, this Thursday, a question to the plenary commission of the Presidency, Institutional Relations and Citizen Security to learn more about the situation.
“They didn’t count on us for anything else,” said regional councilor Ángel Loren. “Now they are in phase zero, which lasts between 12 and 24 monthsin accordance with what was agreed between the association and the Ministry. “The entity is responsible for maintenance, training, clothing and personal allowances.”
“When this phase ends, it is the municipalities, through social policies, who must manage it. In our case, thanks to the House of Cultures“It’s very complicated, because we don’t have any information,” he added. Likewise, it is still unknown where the dozens of refugees who were sleeping in the clandestine shelter of La Milagrosa have been relocated since Friday.
