Some 200 people had to be evacuated as fire crews on Monday extinguished a fire that engulfed a camp where hundreds of migrant workers live near Spain’s farming heartland.
The fire started on the same day the Nijar city council had ordered the camp’s demolition.
The evacuated inhabitants were taken by bus to a nearby warehouse where Red Cross workers received them. It was unclear how the fire started. Calls to local authorities early Monday went unanswered.
Most of the inhabitants of the El Walili camp were men from sub-Saharan Africa and Morocco, working on the many farmlands in the area. Together with tourism, agriculture is a primary source of income for the region, known for its large white plastic greenhouses.
A court order for the camp’s demolition said structures there were dilapidated and built without a housing license.
APDHA, a human rights group working with migrants in the southern Andalucia region, said authorities had no appropriate relocation plans for the migrants.
The camp consisted of hundreds of huts built around 15 years ago and served as housing to as many as 500 migrant workers.
