Spanish activists protest at eviction laws

A wave of protests against the eviction of unemployed people from their homes is sweeping across Spain. The country’s foreclosure process is among the harshest in Europe.

When a mortgage debtor cannot make their payments they are not allowed to hand the keys to the bank or declare themselves bankrupt. Instead they are evicted but still liable for the full amount of the loan.

Protester Susana said:

“It is inhuman that people like these are kicked out, with a debt for all their lives and with no alternative, or a housing solution for these people who can’t pay.”

One home owner who was being thrown out said she was going proudly, because it wasn’t that she didn’t want to pay, she just couldn’t.

In the past two years around 300,000 have had their homes repossessed – most are among Spain’s five million unemployed.

With one eye to elections there have been promises made by politicians for an overhaul of the law.

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