El Gallinero
Slum dwellers, Romanian Immigrants marginalized as gypsies
El Gallinero, just 14 km located from the heart of Madrid, a Romani shanty town, which shares location with one of the largest drug selling points in Europe and the largest one in Spain.
Most of the inhabitants lived under adverse conditions for all their lifes. Inferior water supply, no latrines and the need to risk your life to steal electricity is part of the everyday business of these people, who live completely outside of society, surviving by selling scrap metal and begging.
Spanish authorities are no help to defuse the tense situation. Protected by Spanish laws, attempts to evict the inhabitants and destroy their houses failed. The government offered to pay for tickets, so the inhabitants would return to their countries. But as a matter of fact they prefer to live under these conditions, for in Romania they would have no access to education or health care for their children and further they fear social isolation.
The church Santo Domingo De La Calzada, close to the settlement, constantly makes efforts to alleviate the ongoing situation, but prejudice and discrimination are part of these people’s everyday lives and not easily overcome.
In Spain the poverty index is 12%, in El Gallinero it is 93%.
