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On November 23 in the Eastern region of Valencia, the Spanish National Police detained a 34-year-old man of Moroccan origin for alleged crimes of “theft, violence, and intimidation.”
According to police reports, the man attempted to stab a citizen in the town of Burjassot who managed to escape the knife but got hit with a rock in the face. The hit left the man unconscious, giving the attacker enough time to still the man’s belongings.
After regaining his conscience, the man attacked received medical attention and reported the attack to his local police commissary.
The attacker, however, was released just 24 hours after being taken into custody.
Several neighbours in Valencian towns have reported spikes in criminal activity since the catastrophic floods that hit the Autonomous Community in early November, which left a death toll of more than 200 people.
Even Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez from the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) admitted criminals are taking advantage of the natural disaster.
But the Burjassot episode has become an all-too-common story even before the flood, especially in small towns where large swaths of North African migrants have settled, in part due to the incentives granted by local governments led by both the PSOE and the centre-right Partido Popular (PP).
Three days before, in the Catalan town of El Vendrell in the province of Tarragona, the police detained another man of Moroccan origin who attempted to steal a motorbike from a neighbour. The attacker hit the victim in the head with an axe, which left to cranioencephalic damage, according to reports.
The El Vendrell attacker, however, had been released at least four times before for similar activities. It was reported that the man is also illegally occupying a building in the town, along with other tens of people.
The Mossos d’Esquadra—Catalonia’s regional police force—has said this building has been a hotspot for fights and incidents involving weapons.
Illegal immigration has been steadily on the rise in Spain, affecting almost all regions in the country. Catalonia and Valencia stand out, due to the migration coming from the Mediterranean. The Canary Islands in the Atlantic are also facing a crisis of their own.
58% of Catalan citizens believe there is too much migration, according to a poll by the Barcelona-based Centre d’Estudis d’Opinió. The same report indicated that 62% of Catalans agree the government has lost control over migratory flows.
The left-wing separatist party Esquerra Republicana, currently in the opposition of the Catalonia’s Parlament, said that 60% of all detained individuals in Catalonia were foreigners.
The Conservative VOX party argued that “more than half” of jailed people in Catalonia are inmigrants.
The regional government itself found that, on a point scale of 1 to 10, Catalans rank the fear of being mugged in the street at night at a 6.
Estimates from last year indicate that 80% of crimes in Barcelona are committed by foreign individuals, most of them by registered “non-accompanied minors.”
It is estimated that there are more than 14 thousand of this “minors” in Spain today, two-thirds of them of Moroccan origin, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.
The rising crime rate and the public perception of insecurity in Catalonia has forced regional ministers to admit “an important part of crimes are committed with people without a Spanish ID.”
However, the Socialist-led government insists in its official discourse that the Catalan society and the network of social services “would collapse” without this migration.
Salvador Illa, the Catalan regional president, argued last week that “welcoming and integrating migrants does not constitute a risk to our language, our way of living, or our identity.”
“It makes us better,” he added.