In Spain, a homelessness crisis unfolds in Madrid's airport
Every morning at 6 a.m., Teresa sets out in search of work, a shower and a bit of exercise before she returns home. For around six months, that has been Terminal 4 of Madrid's international airport.
Teresa, 54, who didn't want her full name to be used because of safety concerns, is one of the estimated hundreds of homeless people sleeping in the Spanish capital's airport amid a growing housing crisis in Spain, where rental costs have risen especially fast in cities like Madrid, the country's capital, and Barcelona.
She and others sleeping at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport — the third-busiest airport in Europe in 2023, according to Eurostat — described a situation where for months, authorities have neither helped them find other living arrangements nor have they kicked them out from the corners of the airport that they have occupied with sleeping bags unfurled on the floor as well as blankets, shopping carts and bags.
Soon, things could change.
Limits on entry
Spain's airport operator AENA this week said that it would start limiting who can enter Madrid's airport during low-travel hours by asking visitors to show their boarding passes. AENA said that the policy would take effect in the next few days, but didn't specify exactly when. It said that exceptions would be made for airport workers and anyone accompanying a traveler.
Teresa, a Spanish-Ecuadorian who said she has lived in Spain for a quarter-century, told The Associated Press on Thursday that she hadn't heard of the new policy. She and her husband would be forced to sleep outside on park benches and other public spaces if they aren't allowed back in.
'We can't make demands. We're squatters,' Teresa said, using a controversial term common in Spain. 'Squatters in what is private property. We are aware of that. We want help from authorities, but not a single one has come here.'
Political blame game
For months, a political blame game between officials at different levels of government has meant that the homeless encampments in the airport have largely gone unaddressed. In recent weeks, videos on social media and news reports of the airport's homeless population put a spotlight on the issue.
Madrid's city council on Thursday said that it had asked Spain's national government to take charge and come up with a plan to rehabilitate every homeless individual sleeping in the airport. Spanish airports are overseen by AENA, a state-owned publicly listed company. A city council spokesperson said that Madrid's city government had recently called for a meeting with officials from AENA, the regional government of Madrid and several national ministries that declined.
'Without them, there is no possible solution,' said Lucía Martín, a spokesperson for Madrid's city council division of social policies, family and equality. She said that the national ministries of transport, interior, inclusion, social rights and health declined to participate in a working group.
A day earlier, AENA accused Madrid's city authorities of providing inadequate help and said that the city government's statements about the unfolding situation confirmed its 'dereliction of duty' and abandonment of the airport's homeless individuals.
'It's like a dog chasing its tail,' said Marta Cecilia Cárdenas of the long list of authorities she was told could help her. Cárdenas, a 58-year-old homeless woman originally from Colombia, said that she had spent several months sleeping in Madrid's airport.
Exact numbers are unknown
It's not known how many people are sleeping in Madrid's airport, through which 66 million travelers transited last year. Spain's El País newspaper reported that a recent count taken by a charity group identified roughly 400 homeless people in the airport, many of whom, like Teresa, had previously lived in Madrid and were employed in some capacity.
AP wasn't able to confirm that number. Madrid city council officials, meanwhile, said that the Spanish capital's social service teams had helped 94 individuals in April with ties to the city, 12 of whom were rehabilitated into municipal shelters, addiction treatment centers or independent living.
Word of mouth
Teresa said she had heard about sleeping in the airport by word of mouth. Before she lost her job, she said she lived in an apartment in Madrid's Leganés neighborhood, earning a living taking care of older people.
She currently earns 400 euros ($450) per month, working under the table caring for an older woman. With the earnings, Teresa said she maintains a storage unit in the neighborhood that she used to live in. Though the work is sporadic, she said it was still enough to also cover fees for the gym in which she showers daily, pay for transportation, and purchase food.
Over the last decade, the average rent in Spain has almost doubled, according to real estate website Idealista, with steeper increases in Madrid and Barcelona. Spain also has a smaller public housing stock than many other European Union countries.
Teresa said that she hopes to find a job soon and leave the airport, whatever authorities may force her to do in the coming days and weeks. She and her husband keep to themselves, avoiding others sleeping in the brightly-lit hallway dotted with sleeping bags who were battling mental health problems, addiction and other issues, she said.
'You end up adjusting to it a bit, accepting it even, but never getting used to it,' Teresa said over the constant din of airline announcements. 'I hope to God that it gets better, because this is not life.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
44 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE He wrestles crocs on TV but being a Dad to young kids is what scares Steve Backshall most
On television he's the fearless adventurer who has wrestled with some of the world's deadliest predators, from 15ft crocodiles to killer sharks, and venomous snakes to ferocious polar bears. But for wildlife expert and naturalist Steve Backshall, whose BAFTA-award winning CBBC series Deadly 60, continues to inspire and educate children, it's at home where he faces his toughest challenge. In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, the much-loved and renewed explorer admits that having three children under six in his 50s, is physically challenging. While he absolutely loves what he does, and never expected to still be a huge children's television star at his age, there's no escaping the emotional struggle of spending long periods of time away from his family filming all over the world. Steve is married to two-time Olympic champion rower Helen Glover, 38, and the couple have son Logan, six, and five-year-old twins, Willow and Kit. He describes his wife as a 'mega-mum' and is incredibly proud of the fact that she was the first British female rower to go to an Olympic games after having children. Explaining what it's like being an older dad, Steve said: 'I do wish I had the energy that I had when I was in my 20s and 30s, to have the ability to sprint around playing football and rugby all day long with my kids, and for me to still be popping and buzzing with energy at the end of the day. 'But obviously I haven't and it's really tough to keep going when you're 52 and you've got three kids under six. But I've got knowledge and experience and a whole array of different things that I can teach them about, help them with, and also I've got no choice! These are the cards that I was dealt with and I've got to make it work.' While Steve's three young children are all proud of their 'cool dad' and love hearing about his dangerous expeditions, having to go away for weeks at a time is something that they struggle with. So much so that he reckons they'd all much prefer it if he had a normal 9-5 office job because it would mean he'd be at home with them a lot more. Steve said: 'I think they are very excited by it and very proud but also the fact I go away a lot, they don't like at all. 'They really, really struggle with it and it's been hard ever since they could understand what it was doing and actually, they would take me doing an office job and see me every day over me having this incredibly exciting job but always kind of leaving, and being away for long periods of time. 'Especially at the age they're at. Right now for this one little precious period of time in their lives all they want is to be with Mummy and Daddy.' When he is at home Steve loves nothing more than getting outdoors and exploring nature with his children, something which they all love. He said: 'From the moment they could crawl they were pond dipping, they were out in the canoes, they were climbing trees, doing all the kind of things that I did as a kid that I really wanted them to embrace and enjoy. 'They've kind of had no choice when it comes to that sort of thing but you can see how switched on they are. They are never more alive, more enthused, sparkle in the eyes than when they're out doing something active, physical, in nature. 'It's the same with animals too, whether it's domestic animals or wild animals, they just love it. I've got something that I can give to them that I know can make them happy and enthused.' Steve admits that he's quite an old fashioned dad, he said: 'I do think that discipline and rules and structure are important for kids, and I do think the things we've been doing for generations are timeless and they work for a reason. I think I'm quite an old fashioned dad.' Family time is also really important, and he's conscious of how quickly the years are going by. He said: 'It feels like an absolute heartbeat since they were crawling around and now all three of them are at school and all three of them have got quite grown up personalities, they're all very different from each other. Everything that everyone says about being a parent is so true.' While Steve's passion for nature has inspired generations of youngsters to appreciate and protect wildlife, there is one cheeky clip that will always follow him around. Back in 2013, while demonstrating the hydrodynamics of tuna for Deadly 60, he lost his swimming trunks while clinging onto a rope attached to the back of a speeding boat. He laughed: 'That will be there for the rest of my career no matter what I do! I could be winning endless awards and be knighted by the King, but that will still be out there, imagery of me being dragged around as naked as the day I was born. 'There's no getting away from it. I've been doing this a long time now and there are an awful lot of those "It'll be alright on the night" out takes of me being pooed on, having animals doing inappropriate things in the back ground behinds me, it's just one of those things, you've got to embrace it. 'I do quite a lot of big shows and talks, I've got a big one coming up in October, an arena tour which is rather exciting, I always play bloopers in those shows because people just love them, they find them hilarious.' So what do the school mums think of having a hunky explorer in the playground? Steve said: 'The mums in the playground are all much more adoring of Helen. There's no getting around it, she is mega-mum and she is this incredibly inspiring, iconic figure, so they're all like... 'Oh yeah, the old git who likes bothering bugs or the four-time Olympian who basically went to her third Olympic games when she had three kids under two? 'Who you going to be more admiring of? She's been to four Olympics, she's got two gold medals and one silver medal. She did her third Olympic games post-pandemic, she'd just had the twins, trained herself at home, with no coach, no special diet or routine and became the first British female rower to go to the Olympic games after having kids.' Steve recently filmed a special expedition in the Arctic, which saw him walk the same path that King Charles did 50 years ago to see how the area has changed over time. He's just launched his new podcast That's Just Wild, which went straight to the top of the science podcast chart, and is preparing for his first big arena tour this October. He said: 'The podcast is so exciting. We've just launched. It's with my two good friends Lizzie Daly and Sarah Roberts, and we basically sit around and talk nonsense about nature, the both of them have real academic backgrounds, so there's some really eye-popping science in there as well, it is very funny, sometimes very serious, full of a lot of amazing stuff that people would not have heard before about animals. 'We had a really exciting launch and went straight to the top of the science podcasts which was just fantastic. Then arena tour that I've got coming up in October is something that I've wanted to do for a very long time. 'I've been doing stage shows since about 2008, and I've been developing them over time to make them more and more spectacular, the idea of doing a one man show, in a 20,000 seater arena is both the most exciting and intimidating thing I've ever had on my plate. 'That's the big thing I'm wanting to tick off. It's incredibly exciting and very very frightening. If it goes well, it's going to be epic.' And although he appeared on BBC's smash hit Saturday night show Strictly Come Dancing back in 2014, Steve's response to any other big celebrity shows has been a blanket 'no' because he is just too busy doing what he loves. He said: 'Strictly was an incredible experience with the best people. But I have a fairly blanket 'no' I'm up to my eyeballs in the stuff that I love and that is dear to me. 'An awful lot of people in my position do not have all that work, so I do feel that breath down the back of my neck, and I do need to keep doing the stuff that I am good at, and while the opportunities are there I need to take it because they might not be there in a couple of years time. 'So yes occasionally, there will be mentions of things but I'm not really interested. Anything physical like Strictly, Dancing on Ice, you have to give it six months of your life and not do anything else, and right now I've too many other things that I want to do. 'And as for I'm A Celebrity, I can't imagine for a minute, why would they take me to the jungle? I spend my life in the jungle. 'This may sound big headed but I spend more time in the jungle than the people that they would have as their advisors so why would they take me? I would be the worst person to take. It sounds so pretentious, but we're in June and I've had five weeks in the jungle already this year.' Readers can listen to Steve's new podcast, That's Just Wild, podcast here and tickets for his huge arena tour this October are available via Tickemaster.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Almost half of all pet owners have CANCELLED a holiday to stay with their animals
Almost half of all pet owners have cancelled a holiday to stay with their animals, new figures have shown. Four out of ten have declined the chance to take a trip away, purely due to the fear of leaving their pets at home, according to a study by Virgin Media O2 (VMO2). Meanwhile, a whopping 63 per cent of pet owners confessed they do not like to leave furry friends behind to make a foreign getaway, the merged mobile and broadband company showed. For Brits who do choose to take some time out, pets are what they miss most while away - more than even family, as per the research commissioned from Censuswide. And the yearning for their furry friends from afar sees nearly half (48 per cent) of pet owners video call their pets while on holiday, with a fifth checking an animal cam. In fact, almost a third of Brits spend as much as half an hour to an hour per day on the phone to their pets back home, using up valuable time away. For pet owners who find absence makes the heart grow fonder, dog trainer Rob Alleyne offered some advice - and it was not to call so often, or perhaps even at all. The founder of Canine Instructor Academy explained: 'Although it may make you feel better to call five times a day, for some dogs, it feels like you abandon them again every time you end the call, so they can become unsettled. 'Check your indoor camera and see how your dog is coping after each call. 'If they're being left with someone who is holding the phone, they can, of course, let you know how the dog reacts post-call.' It may even be better to put aside your yearning entirely - and not call at all: 'Some dogs may find it confusing to hear their owner's voice but not be able to find them... 'If they seem a bit out of sorts [after the call], perhaps video calling is not for them.' Pet owners explained the reasons why they call their animals while abroad - from easing their own homesickness, to believing their pets recognise their voice. But they should be aware it is not just our four-legged friends who might find themselves feeling bad after a call from a place in the sun. With as many as a third of us being served unexpected roaming charges after a trip abroad, costing on average more than £90 per trip, needy pet owners could be in financial hot water. They may be running up massive phone bills - perhaps just to keep in touch with their pooch. Gen Z pet parents should watch out for this the most - they are the neediest of all animal owners, with 70 per cent of them admitting to calling their pets while away. An enormous 61 per cent of Gen Z animal owners also confessed speaking to their pets while on holiday helps them feel less homesick. For those who do choose to FaceTime their pets, Mr Alleyne said like anything, preparation is key to managing any adverse reactions from your furry friend. He said: 'Familiarise your pet with a particular piece of music or a favourite song for a few weeks before you leave them for longer periods, particularly playing it at times when the dog is relaxed, chewing or resting. 'Have it playing in the background when you call. This can help to manage your dog's excitement or confusion levels during your call.' Mr Alleyne also had some suggestions as to how to make the most out of any time spent on the phone to our four-legged friends. He reminded animal lovers as much as we like to think our pets understand everything we say, it is sadly not the truth. Tone of voice and a couple of meaningful words or phrases are more important: 'Excitable, high-pitched voices will arouse the dog, increasing the likelihood of them becoming anxious and frustrated when you hang up. 'Instead, adopt a calm, soothing tone to help keep your pet calm. 'Spend some time creating words and phrases that will mean something to your pet when they hear them.' An O2 spokesperson said: 'We know how important it is to keep connected whilst on holiday, which is why O2 is the only major UK network to offer inclusive EU roaming as standard to 49 European destinations. 'Our new research shows that it's not just friends and family that we want to stay in touch with, but our pets too. 'With more reasons to call home than ever before, it's even more important that your mobile provider has your back while you're abroad and that you check your tariff before travelling.'
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
Marriage Diaries: My husband is the summer holiday Grinch
My husband is the summer holiday Grinch. As the weather improves, talk has turned to summer holidays; plans for when the schools break up and whether people are opting for somewhere far-flung or closer to home. There's chat among friends, neighbours and colleagues of French campsites and villas in Portugal. Of handy flight times and off-the-beaten-track restaurants and cafés. Not in my house, however. My husband makes a face or groans if I even attempt to discuss summer plans. He has zero interest in what anyone else might be doing, and I have never heard him say, 'Ooh, I'd love to go there.' Clearly, for him, the prospect of a summer break is torture. I honestly think my husband would be happy staying at home all summer, but I don't think that's fair on our children – or on me. Holidays can be eye-wateringly expensive, but it isn't a lack of funds making him behave like this. He'll happily shell out on golf club membership or a fancy accessory for his road bike, so I won't for one minute be accepting a line about 'cutting back' when it comes to a summer holiday. Plenty of my friends have suggested I just book something and present my husband with a fait accompli. While this is a tempting solution and would mean that, for once, I could organise the holiday I wanted, I'm not sure I can face the inevitable weeks of complaint or tutting my booking decisions will inevitably produce. Instead, I'm resigned to the fact that when we eventually do arrange a trip, I will be a travel-agent-cum-PA and do all the research, admin and packing single-handedly. It's easier to take all this on myself than deal with the groaning if I ask my husband to take a hand in the logistics and do something as alien as find his swimwear or pack a suitcase. Though he would never admit it, I think my husband does benefit from a change of scenery, albeit he'll be keen to board the return flight and get back to his home comforts. Like plenty of people, he takes a few days to chill out, but does get markedly more relaxed once we arrive and the warmer weather kicks in. However, I'm braced for moaning about food, accommodation, weather and travel delays – none of which are in my control. It sometimes jars a bit when friends are posting their glorious holiday-making all over social media and going on about 'making memories' or having long idyllic days of family bonding. Our teenage kids have had their fill of grumpy dad on tour, and soon scarper to jump on jet skis or hurtle down water slides. Yes, it would be lovely to unwind together with my husband, sipping a gin and tonic in the sun, but I know from experience, it'll be hard work. And for anyone who says to me, 'He'll enjoy it when he gets there' – I admire your optimism. My husband will never be heard saying he's had a great time. I have persevered over the years and tried to tailor our holidays so he'll love every moment, but I'm past that now. These days, I'm more inclined to ensure the children are catered for with things to do. I'll find us a resort that isn't filled with young families and toddlers but that has some other teens possibly to mingle with. I'll be packing a stack of paperbacks and my headphones so I can unplug and relax. It's taken years of holidays to realise I can't shift my husband's mindset. For him, a holiday – no matter where – is seemingly an endurance test. If only he would realise that having him as travel companion is exactly that.
